BLACKBERRY, THE NEW NOKIA!

When I bought my first Blackberry back in October, 2011, I was sad, heartbroken and cheated. After all I had been a loyal Nokia user since 2002, almost a decade.

In those 10 years I had used around 15 different Nokia phones, right from the basic 5110 to the high end N 95. Though, my love for Nokia was strong, it the Finnish company that had failed me continuously over the several years.

I mean Nokia was never perfect, we all know that and there was a level of understanding that we had developed with its phones. Like the people in the 70’s and 80’s who bought ambassadors and knew that the maintenance would be easy.

Nokia was the kid who looked great but didn’t have the caliber to score above 60-65 percent in exams.

Of the 15 phones I used hardly 2 or 3 served me for a complete year without any glitches while some kept hanging, other had their software corruption, some developed hardware problems  like earphones, mic and keypad etc.

But the fact that there were no other good mobile phone brands limited the choice. 

However, with players like Apple, Blackberry, Samsung, HTC etc. entering the market we were spoilt for choice.

And like many other who broke away free I too decided to finally bid adieu to Nokia after my last phone from the company C7 which too suffered from the same genetic diseases as its predecessors.

Few drops of rain on its touch screen one day, and it stopped working. Surprisingly, the earphone and the mic too went for a toss. I was fed up and bought a curve 9300.

The first 6 months were fine. But after that it too got the Nokia syndrome. It took almost five minutes to start, its battery would get hot while charging, the phone started hanging etc.

It was Déjà vu.

Many of my friends suggested that I buy an Apple. But my girlfriend hated Whatsapp and won’t let go of BBM—our only source of interaction through day.

So, I bought a Bold 4 9900 in November 2013 which was just a shade cheaper the iPhone thinking that BB would have sorted out all the glitches in such an expensive phone.

Sadly, I have got a rude surprise. This is the seventh month of usage and it gets hot and cools down whenever it feels like, it hangs, the spacebar is not working properly etc.

But there is something about BB which I love. I just can’t put my finger on it. I love it more than an Apple. And that is why when the news of the all new Z10 and Q10 came I jumped with joy.

A fan of qwerty keypad I had set my eyes on Q10 from day one and I had heard that it would be launched around 28 to 30,000.

 It was finally launched yesterday at 45,000. Disappointed I was. The last thing BlackBerry needed now was an expensive companion model for the Z 10.

At this price-point, I expect the iPhone or the Galaxy or the One. There’s too much competition out there, from iOS, Android and Windows and BB just doesn’t command the respect it once did.

So, as BB turns into the next Nokia, it’s time to bid adieu to Canada (BB) and get myself either an America (Apple) or South Korea (Samsung) balm to heal my wounds.