[SergBB]

I think this can be interesting. Post how you first heard of RIM BB and/or how were you introduced to BlackBerry phones.

I first say the Pearl many years ago. When it had just came out, and I found it an overly large phone and disliked it. I was loyal to my Nokia, which then I switched to a smaller Nokia 6300 which I very much loved.

After that more and more people got BBs, and everyone was talking about them and how they were awesome (by that time I was just 18, therefore I found that having a BB at that age is rather stupid, just to use the BBM and be "popular" - damn trends).

One day after my Nokia 6300 had a terrible accident in which the repairs were going to cost me as much as a new phone, I went out to search for something. By this height, most people I knew had already BBs and loved them, so I decided WTH, I'll get one and see what the hype is all about. Got myself a Pearl 8110 (instead of the 8120 I wanted) and I pretty much loved the phone. It was snappy and the BBM convinced me, plus internet all the time, GPS, and easy of use, a nice SureType keyboard, I was sold.

I'm loyal to BB now after going thru an 8110, 8320 and now 8520. And I have tested and used for short times the 8900 and 9000.

How about you?

[tsac]

The need to get more than a Beep, a long long time ago.

[Noodle22]

I work in telecommunications, most of my friends have iPhones, all of management had BlackBerry's. During training I took for data policies versus other carriers, we were told to go on CrackBerry and look up the article '10 reasons why BlackBerry is better than the iPhone' to give us an idea about different models, the positives and negatives, ect.

The friends I had in that class had BlackBerrys as well, and after reading the article I realized I needed to rethink what I wanted out of a phone as I had really done no thinking at all and was just going to get an iPhone because some of my other friends had it. She stated why she had a BlackBerry and why she would never go iPhone, and it made sense.

After much research, and the 8520 in Lavender coming out soon after, I opted for it and stuck since. I have been a BlackBerry owner since November, and I am happy in my decision.

[dc/dc]

I've had 36 different BlackBerry devices, starting with the 7105t in 2005. I've never looked back.

[devnull]

year 2001-2002 work gave me one of these.

[akosnitzky]

I was assisting with a political campaign and needed mobile access in the field. Welcome 7510

[SteveO86]

A few years back I worked at tech support for VZ (Not VZW they are actually complete separate companies) and I worked with BlackBerries.

Later on a wanted a way to communicate with all my friends/family while I did everything I had to, I already knew how reliable BlackBerries so I picked up the 8830 for personal use.

So far so good.. I just keep finding things my BlackBerry can do for me.

[juwaack68]

About 6 years ago I had just started working in Telecom and the VP of IT came to me and said "We need the company president to have a working BlackBerry in his hand in a month". Uh...what's a BlackBerry? What's a BES?

Been a LOT of changes since then!

[aiharkness]

Wirelessly posted

I first learned about RIM and blackberry a long time ago in a newspaper article. The story was about the developing smartphone market and mentioned that the blackberry was the only device that could sense when it was in network coverage and sync with the user's office data. I started paying attention but didn't think I could afford it. And I probably couldn't.

I was using various windows ce and pocket pc devices over time, dialing into an email server or connecting to the internet via wifi to check email when on the road. That got to be inconvenient, so I went out to look at smartphones and BB's. At the time the BIS prices at cingular and the other carriers here were ridiculous, but tmobile was unbelievably reasonable and unlimited. And the price for a 7100t was great, too. So I got the 7100t not knowing much more than that. One of the best dumb luck choices I ever made.

[fratts]

I got my first BB from work. I was doing Tech support for a local telecom company and they supplied me with a 7300 device. Then I moved up to a 8800, and am currently on a Tour. I will never buy any other smartphone other than a BB ever again. RIM has been doing it right way before Apple even thought of getting in the mobile phone market and they will continue to do it well after the iPhone fad has come and gone.

[rambo47]

I'm a former Treo user, having started with the 600 and upgrading a number of times as new models were released. Messaging was my #1 priority with actual phone calls being #2. The trouble with several of my Treos freezing and resetting was becoming more than just an annoyance. It came to a head when we were doing a home renovation and I needed to be reachable by the contractor and several sub-contractors all day while I was at work. After missing several desperate calls from the contractor because my Treo had frozen while in it's holster un-noticed by me, I simply HAD to find something better right away.

Everyone at my company seemed to be attached to their BlackBerrys and in constant contact with their customers. Although I was too far down the food chain to get on the BES, and not sure I would want to anyway, the BB platform looked like a winner. I picked up a T-Mobile 7230 and fell in love.

Somewhere along the way I felt like I was missing out on too much multimedia fun with my BB and decided to try Nokias. I had a multi-year flirtation with them, on and off, but kept going back to BlackBerrys. Nokia would come out with a new flagship phone and I would have it, but it became apparent I was always trying to turn it into more of a messaging device than it was. Although I was seduced by the multimedia capabilities of Nokia I just wasn't using it. And they fail miserably at messaging when compared to BlackBerrys. The Nokia E-series devices came the closest, but still fell short. So why keep trying to turn a Nokia into a BlackBerry when the real solution was to simply get a real BlackBerry?

The 7105t brought me back into the BB fold and, with the exception of some very short-lived dalliances with other platforms, I've been a BB user ever since. I left T-Mobile to go to AT&T for the originally BlackBerry Bold, then left AT&T for Sprint to get the Palm Pre. Yeah, good move - NOT! That episode lasted about 2 weeks and I went running back to BlackBerrys.

I'm not locked into BlackBerry with a fanatical fanboy's unconditional love. I'll jump to a different platform as soon as one presents itself if it better suits my individual needs. But so far nothing else even comes close. BlackBerrys just fit the way I work.

[Claidheamhmor]

I was given an 8310 at work, and basically given the job of managing the recently-setup BES server. I've learnt a lot since then!

[Seawolf]

working in politics

[daphne]

Several years ago I started withing with a software company where I saw all the guys there sitting at breaks and lunch watching their email come through continuously on their BlackBerrys. I immediately knew I had to have one. I went from the 8703e to 8330 to the 9630.

[VRaptor]

At the time I was carring a palm tungston T5 for apps especially epocrates which I use at work and a phone. I really just wanted to carry one device in my pocket. My girlfriend at the time was a director at a hospital and they had provided her with a blackberry pearl. She let me play around with it one day and I said damn, I gotta get one of these.

And I did. Carried the pearl for 2 years then got the Bold the day they came out. Still lovin it.

[Darynlxm]

Hey! New to the site and thought this would be a good place for my first post.

So, way back in 2008 I was using a Pantech device from Telus. It was a good phone but it was also the phone that made me hate flip-phones for various reasons.

1) My bus pass and phone were in the same pocket, and sometimes the pass would make its way between the phone and dial random numbers as I walked / sat / ran.

2) The flip motion on it was hard and rough, seemed like it was going to break any minute.

3) It broke.

Then, about two years into my contract with Telus the pantech phones battery broke, and acid leaked all over the keypad and screen destroying it. This was also about the time that I started dating my boyfriend of the time who owned a Blackberry.

He had the Rogers 8330 (Curve) and had allowed me to use it sometimes, or reply to contacts in his place when he was driving. I was impressed with the durability of the phone, the keyboard was fun to use and it was a fairly nice looking piece of hardware.

After playing around in the Telus store with many phones, some blackberry and some feature-phones, I decided I too would go with the Curve.

That is how I was introduced to blackberry.

The Curve is still in my possession and working great, albeit a tad scratched. I am now looking into getting the Storm 2 at the end of the month, it will be my birthday present from my best friend.