RIM has one of the oldest OS platforms in the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin, but unlike Nokia's S60 (reviewed here last week), and Microsoft which is busy rebuilding, CrackBerry.com's signature BlackBerry Bold 9700 and BlackBerry Storm2 enjoy huge popularity in North America, a seemingly unbreakable hold on the Enterprise market, and an ever-increasing focus on consumers.
Last year, Dieter likened the previous BlackBerry Bold 9000 to the Treo 650 -- perhaps the ultimate representation of a platform at its peek of perfection... yet raising the question of where that platform had left to go. On the other hand, the original Storm1 never failed to disappoint, a hit in numbers but not hearts of BlackBerry lovers. Now it's a year later. Does the BlackBerry Bold 9700 take the roll of Treo 680, a slimmer, more polished perfection, still not hinting at platform futures to come? And does the Storm2 get right what the Storm2 done so wrong?
To try and answer that, the SPE editors did a Round Table with Mickey for the Cell Phone Junkie podcast, and I got plenty of help from CrackBerry Kevin and a stupefying amount of information from the CrackBerry Forums. Huge thanks to everyone -- I needed it!
(And just a reminder, every day you post on my CrackBerry.com thread, or any of the official Round Robin threads, is another day you're entered to win one of six (6!) new smartphones!)
Okay, time to bring the BlackBerry rain... after the break!
