Before I took to the iPhone I coveted a BlackBerry. For some reason I never got round to buying one, probably because I thought it was designed mainly for the corporate user. In those days BlackBerrys were everywhere, usually in the hands of the movers and shakers of this world. Now, the movers have moved on and the poor old BlackBerry has become a chav accessory.
It isn’t only in London. This article in the New York Times tells a story of shame among BlackBerry owners:
“I’m ashamed of it,” said Ms. Crosby, a Los Angeles sales representative who said she had stopped pulling out her BlackBerry at cocktail parties and conferences. In meetings, she says she hides her BlackBerry beneath her iPad for fear clients will see it and judge her.
The BlackBerry was once proudly carried by the high-powered and the elite, but those who still hold one today say the device has become a magnet for mockery and derision from those with iPhones and the latest Android phones.
This one-way descent from darling of the City to lowest common denominator is a predictable path. It could happen to Apple one day. Apple, though, has shown a remarkable reluctance to chase down any market. It provides expensive products which remain desirable and this has been a sound marketing policy up to now. But dénouement is never far from sight.
by Mike Evans, 23 October 2012