The BB has been so unwieldy and confusing in its UI compared to the iPod Touch that I carry around (in my WiFi-rich work space) that I basically didn't use it at all. Finally, the BB Curve failed to charge at all, as the power connector (in the phone) failed (or the electronics behind it). (yes, I bought a new battery; yes, I had several different charging devices...)

The upshot is that I longed for my prior phone, which was a "phone" and did text messages, and could browse the web (terribly), ... but actually worked.

My Android has now appeared, and the UI quality is spectacularly better, including a "home" button that ACTUALLY WORKS! unlike the BB, in which I inevitably found myself stuck inside menus that I really didn't want to be in, and could never extricate myself from.

The BB is an extremely popular device, beloved to the point of addiction, by Big People (such as Barack O.). But, I have so very frequently found myself not reaching for my BB that I had to ask, "why? Why do so many people like the BB?" Because, frankly, it sucks ... at least in comparison to things like the iPhone/iPod Touch and my new Android.

Maybe this is a Fortran vs. C or Windows vs. Mac sort of thing. But I am genuinely mystified by the popularity of the BB, having suffered with one for 9 months.

I think BlackBerry makes some really great hardware. I bet it wouldn't take much for them to build a killer Windows Mobile smartphone with no touchscreen, for example.

You're right about mobile browsers not replacing a desktop screen. Usually, when you're trying to read a web page on a mobile device, it's not necessarily about convenience -- it's because you need to find information. If you're out and about, you might need to find information right then and there. At that point, a malfunctional web browser is very bad.

Well, the last week of the Round Robin we get to "come home again" to our own devices. I'm pretty sure I'll stay a WM guy, but as I said in my iPhone article, the iPhone has pretty much secured a permanent spot in my gear bag as a movie machine.

Unfortunately, some browsers make this a frustrating chore...

I'd expect that too, but there are limits and (as I think this round robin will end up showing) it's not possible (with current technology) to have a device that's best at everything. Some of those limits are set early in the design process and are completely immovable. Form factor is perhaps the most obvious - you can't have both a permanently exposed physical QWERTY and a big screen covering most of the front of the device, etc - but there are others too, like choice of (non-text) input method (finger, stylus, d-pad, scroll wheel), that have profound effects on how the device operates and what it's best for.