[the gladiator]

I'm now in the process of switching from a regular cell to a smartphone and, as expected, I have a Blackberry as a candidate. I have only one concern and I'm here, in the gurus' blackberry home, to be convinced.

I understood that the only way a BB has to download emails is with a BIS service through push-email technology. Many others smartphone based on Symbian, WM and PalmOS offer not only this possibility but also a "manual" approach: with an email client they can connect to a POP3 email account and download the emails. Of course this procedure can be automatized with interval as short as I need, mirroring, if needed, a push-email behavior.

My question is: why should I buy a BB that offers me only one way to have emails on my terminal, rather than choosing a Symbian/WM/PalmOS based smartphone that offers me two ways to reach (more or less) the same goal ?

[PaulMdx]

I had a Palm Treo 600 and a HTC Wizard before getting my 8100. I also have a HTC TyTN II for work.

I assume your question in reality is: why should I buy a handset where I'm forced to pay [more] for the BIS service?

For me, I pay more because I believe my BB offers the best user experience. Only you can decide if the same is true for you.

[rambo47]

Blackberry eliminated the need or use for the manual approach because it's an "always on" connection and your mail will always be delivered automatically as it arrives. The exception is the email account that doesn't support instant push, like my Apple .Mac email account. This one is polled every 15 minutes (not changeable) and pushed to my BB by RIM's servers.

Nobody does email like Blackberry. Plus their security is the best in the world. Something like 2048-bit encryption. A punk hacker and his laptop would take something like 2.1 million years to crack it. If you set your WM phone or Treo to check your mail every 15 minutes, it's still not the constant connection of the Blackberry, and your battery will probably last about 5 hours. My BB lasts days! But it's a question of your individual needs. Is it mission-critical for you to get your email the second it's available, or is it better for you to choose a time when you can download it and review it at your own pace?

The thing to remember with BIS service is that it replaces any other data plan you would have for a non-Blackberry. I'm on T-Mobile USA and the unlimited BB data plan add-on is $20/month. Same price as the T-Mobile Total Internet, so I don't spend anything "extra" over what I would spend with a Palm Treo or Moto Q.

[ArgonNJ]

If you have Google mail, they make a application that you can download that looks and acts like gmail on the desktop. Its not push, of course, but you can get your mail HTML and all without having to rely on BIS.

[heffman]

...i think that email delivery, although important, is not the only thing you should consider in making your choice. Consider other elements, such as OS stability, physical vs. virtual keyboard, battery life, call quality, software applications, etc.

Although email may be the biggest advantage of a BB, it is by far not the only consideration. The only true way to tell what you will like most is to go to a store and try them out for yourself.

happy hunting!

[djm2]

Originally Posted by the gladiator

I understood that the only way a BB has to download emails is with a BIS service through push-email technology.

Not quite true. You can also get BES service, which will either require that you are running your own mail server and you install this, or you have a contractual relationship with a third party that hosts your email. Under these circumstances you get instant email.

Also, with gmail and (I believe) yahoo their email accounts are nearly instant as well, while still maintaining the battery life advantages, etc., that other people have mentioned.

[ArgonNJ]

Originally Posted by heffman

...i think that email delivery, although important, is not the only thing you should consider in making your choice. Consider other elements, such as OS stability

I can't speak to Symbian, as I've never used it, but I can say the BB OS is very stable. I have used WM and Palm OS and they are a bit buggy, especially WM. There is nothing worse then having to re-boot your phone every day or so. You didn't mention the iphone, but its OS is very stable as well.

[takeshi]

Originally Posted by heffman

...i think that email delivery, although important, is not the only thing you should consider in making your choice. Consider other elements, such as OS stability, physical vs. virtual keyboard, battery life, call quality, software applications, etc.

I'll second this. Stability is a very high priority for me (I don't need to troubleshoot my phone) and it's a huge resaon why Blackberry is my platform of choice.

Originally Posted by the gladiator

My question is: why should I buy a BB that offers me only one way to have emails on my terminal, rather than choosing a Symbian/WM/PalmOS based smartphone that offers me two ways to reach (more or less) the same goal ?

My question is why do you consider pull to be advantageous? I wouldn't consider being able to adjust polling intervals as "two ways to reach the same goal". It's still one way. Pull devices tend to have poor battery life since they spend so much time polling the server(s). Why poll the server when there's no new mail? Why not just have the server push mail as it comes?

If specifying the polling interval or when you do and do not receive email are important to you then you'll want to narrow your choices to pull devices. Still, I would highly recommend considering other factors mentioned above. You don't have to deal with each piece of email as it comes in even if you go the push route, despite how many Crackberry addicts tend to behave.