It probably isn't a huge surprise to hear this week that Android now has the largest market share for smartphones.
My brand new
Blackberry 9780 is already looking dated next to my friend's
Samsung running
Android. In the last year or so podcasts have become a favoured way for me to consume news and that has forced me back into the two appliance world (anyone remember carrying a separate PDA and mobile phone) - an iPod Touch for my podcasts and my Blackberry for everything else.
My 12 year old successfully negotiated a swap - my iPod Touch for his Nano - with the logic that the smaller Nano is a better choice for me. And for a week or two he was right. The smaller Nano worked just fine. I had to get refamiliarized with iTunes but it was all it was working until last week when my home office workstation died and I accidentally dropped my Blackberry in the toilet (another story).
My replacement phone a 9780 Blackberry is vastly improved over the previous version I was using and finally has reasonable media management. In fact it handles podcasts better than the iTouch but the podcasts I want are not available for the Blackberry - eg., The Economist, RadioLab,
The Age of Persuasion - and some of my other favourites - Ideas, Sunday Morning and
This American Life seem to take forever to become available after they broadcast. Frustrating! And then my friend showed me how impressively podcasts stream on his Samsung running Android.
Then there is the email thing. Now that most email is secured by an SSL certificate, I am starting to wonder how much additional value Blackberry RIM's email black box is giving me. This last week I picked up an HP printer with ePrint technology and setup an email alias to forward to the obscure one that HP provides ... but it doesn't work through the Blackberry mail. On top of that, there are the limited synch options available for non enterprise Blackberry Mail systems.
I am almost convinced that I will be able to type as fast with the Android swipe technology as I can on my Blackberry. Did I mention how I really, really covet the way the Samsung Android phone broadcasts wifi?
What's left? I still love my BBN but I am starting to feel as though I could live without it. Sorry RIM, in spite of a long term relationship I may soon be moving on.
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