I just accepted a new job and will now officially be among the road warrior crowd, instead of just playing one on TV...

Wait a minute. Houston we have a problem... They are setting me up with a Blackberry 8830 World Edition, that's no smartphone! I have never used one but, they seem to be a fine messaging / phone device, and that's it.

Anyone used one, and can offer a fair comparison? My current device is a 3125, I had planned to move to a HTC Touch Dual or Cruise. I'll miss the flip but, wanted to avoid carting a laptop everywhere I go and saw the touchscreen devices as a worthwhile substitute.

My new employer has just invested in software (server I assume?) for this big blackberry rollout, is it too late for them/me?

IMHO carrying two devices sort of defeats the purpose of compact devices, so I have ruled that out.

After I am established in my new role, I may try to convert them to Windows Mobile. Where can I find some info on feature comparisons that I can use for my case?

Thanks...

Congrats on the new job.


The 8830 is a nice RIM device as far as they go. For many people a Blackberry with its email centric design is all they need. One thing I hear from my Blackberry using co-workers (we use both RIM and Windows Mobile) is the ability to open documents attached to email. With a Windows Mobile 6 pro edition you can do that. In fact that is my biggest beef with the Blackberry although there may be third party solutions. One quick article to check out is at Infoworld. You could also do a google search of the MGN site and type in the box " Windows Mobile versus Blackberry". Slect the web as the destination. You can find a number of blogs on thes subject.

Thanks for supporting MGN and good luck if you have to switch to a Blackberry. I couldn't do it given all the great features of Windows Mobile.

Another thing to keep in the back of your mind for when you've been there long enough to make suggestions and go against the grain; Blackberry has developed a client for Windows Mobile. I don't even remember which devices have it (very few do if I remember correctly), or if you can get it for other devices. But I do know it is possible for at least a few Windows Mobile device to connect to Blackberry servers.

It can be difficult to remove users from CrackBerries.... We have a number of district managers in one division that have been addicted to them. Several attempts have been made to get them weened off of them and shutdown the CrackBerry servers but...

We use mostly smart phones (MotoQ's, Treo700W and the new Samsung SCHi3760's and such).

Thanks for the input everyone.

I will do a little homework and see what I can cook up... If I can run a Blackberry client on a device of my choice, they would probably be fine with the idea.

Thanks again

You can try running Blackberry Connect and Blackberry Connect for Windows