I'm sad and miss my Eris

[mpaquette]

Due to email restrictions at work, I had to stop using my Eris and go back to a BlackBerry. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but after 48 hours with the BlackBerry, I miss my Eris. I didn't realize how pathetic web browsing was on the BlackBerry until now.

I'm considering keeping the Eris and carrying 2 phones, something I said I'd never do. Carrying 2 phones sounds like a pain in the rear, plus it would cost me another $29.99 a month. I already have another line I could add the Eris to.

Anyone here carry 2 phones? How does that work for you?

 

[gruss]

Works great. I don't carry work berry when work is over. LIke to keep work and personal separate.

 

[bjanow]

Due to email restrictions at work, I had to stop using my Eris and go back to a BlackBerry. ...

Anyone here carry 2 phones? How does that work for you?

When work is over just do a *228 option 1 to start using your Eris again. No reason to pay $360 / year.

 

[gruss]

Thought it was option 3 to swap phones.

 

[WARRIIOR]

Aren't the data plans different between the two phones?

 

[Frisco]

Both of my grown boys carry two cell phones all of the time; one, a ragged flip-phone type for work/boss communications, and the other the one they use for funzie stuff like we talk about in here: texting, music, videos, games, etc.

I think it's pretty common out there now days.

 

[Pitamakan]

Aren't the data plans different between the two phones?

Yeah, that could be a problem.

That said, I've carried two phones around for years ... one for my employment, and one for my personal use and private consulting work. You get used to it, and I like keeping the functions separate.

And I make up for it by not having a landline.

 

[jtb199]

Aren't the data plans different between the two phones?

I don't think so...

I have switched back and forth between my blackberry tour and eris a dozen times...

The plans are the same...just worded different...

One says blackberry data plan and the other smartphone data plan...something like that...

Pricing is the same...

I haven't ran into any problems doing this...

 

[SirEagle]

I carry two. My Eris and a POS flip for work. Work pays for theirs though and it's only with me 9-6, M-F. They switched to VZW about a month ago so I get a discount now on my personal account. There are a lot of people at work that carry two phones. Work is work and they want it kept separate.

 

[DaWeav]

Why are you having to provide the Blackberry? Shouldn't the Blackberry be provided by your job if they want you TETHERED to them?

My company is required to provide me the Blackberry on their dime and they pay for the services as long as they want me available on it, but they have major restrictions on the use of the Blackberry with their email systems. And, if they take the Blackberry away from me, it doesn't matter to me of course, but they loose the ability to have me live on their mail servers and available on their cell phone minutes. I refuse to let them use my personal cell phone to conduct their business, that's just WRONG!

My sister had the option with her job where they would pay her extra money to handle the Blackberry on her personal cellular contract. I of course advised her to really crunch the numbers since she didn't have a data plan on here personal plan, and that she would also be responsible for replacement and upgrades to the Blackberry handset too. I just said, as long as your job increases your pay to pay for the additional Blackberry data plan with insurance, and provided you a bonus every two years so that you could purchase/upgrade to a new Blackberry handset, then that would be fair.

 

[ChiTownJim]

I carry two phones but like someone else said I levae work a 4pm and at 6pm I stop carrying my BB with me, and I just leave it in my car on the weekends and check my email periodicly. Use to have my work email also set up on my eris but haven't set it back up since the 2.1 upgrade
I like knowing when my phone rings that it's either personal or business especially since I answer diffrently on both

 

[smacky]

I don't understand why Blackberry is the standard for businesses. Don't they realize the iPhone has a similar share of the market? Most companies use Windows products, wouldn't they choose WinMo over RIM just to keep everything by the same company? I don't get it.

 

[Pitamakan]

I don't understand why Blackberry is the standard for businesses. Don't they realize the iPhone has a similar share of the market? Most companies use Windows products, wouldn't they choose WinMo over RIM just to keep everything by the same company? I don't get it.

I suppose IT types just want to have to support the smallest number of platforms possible ... regardless of what their users might actually need or want. BB is an easy and safe choice, especially given Microsoft's fairly poor track record in that department ... not to mention the fact that MS has just completely abandoned their existing user base.

It would be cool to see Android become a more business-accepted platform, and over the long run it might be crucial to the platform's long-term success. I wonder what it would take?

 

[jkmasi]

I suppose IT types just want to have to support the smallest number of platforms possible ... regardless of what their users might actually need or want. BB is an easy and safe choice, especially given Microsoft's fairly poor track record in that department ... not to mention the fact that MS has just completely abandoned their existing user base.

It would be cool to see Android become a more business-accepted platform, and over the long run it might be crucial to the platform's long-term success. I wonder what it would take?

For Android to be an widely accepted business phone, it would have to handle corporate email more easily. The handsets would have to have a good hard keyboard (think Touch Pro 2, etc) - at least as an option, and work flawlessly as a PHONE. I still miss my blackberry for calls and emails. My BB held a signal better than any phone I've ever had - way better than my Eris, which drops calls regularly in the same area my BB had no problem.

 

[LiverpoolsNo9]

... not to mention the fact that MS has just completely abandoned their existing user base.

Not agreeing or disagreeing with you, just curious as to why you think this?

 

[Pitamakan]

Not agreeing or disagreeing with you, just curious as to why you think this?

Well, Windows Phone 7 is still several months away, and it doesn't provide a software upgrade path for existing phones. So there's likely to be little future app development for 6.5, and the phones available now will never be able to run 7. Unless you absolutely need something that only Windows offers, and you don't mind investing in dead-end technology, for the next several months it won't make much sense to invest in a Windows smartphone.

 

[smacky]

No group is strictly for business. The iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, etc. all have users of all kinds of backgrounds. That's what doesn't make sense to me. High schoolers have BlackBerries. They also have iPhones and Android phones. What makes RIM's platform so special?

Maybe that's something that's holding Android expansion back. Companies dictating what platform they support.

 

[nomarsgirl]

For Android to be an widely accepted business phone, it would have to handle corporate email more easily.

I'm no tech geek, but I had my work e-mail set up and working flawlessly on my Eris in under 5 minutes through active sync.

 

[mpaquette]

The reason RIM is so widely used in the business world is because of the security the platform offers. If a business chooses to implement a BlackBerry enterprise server, they have almost complete control over the phone. Think of it as Active Directory for phones. You're all right in that Android can connect to Exchange, but where it severely lacks is in the security policies available. For instance, an administrator cannot force encryption, cannot control certain phone features such as Bluetooth discoverability, etc. Some companies want this kind of control over the data that they allow on phones and this where BlackBerry wins every time. The problem is that BlackBerry is lacking in just about everything else.

 

[Frisco]

That's the first time I've seen those facts pointed out. Thanks, it explains a lot about the Blackberry foothold in the corporate market.

I know it's not right, but sometimes it seems silly to me when I see a kid with a Curve, Bold or a Tour.. I may be myopic about it but I still view Blackberries as the tool of a business person, not a kid texting or sending pictures, etc.

 

[mpaquette]

I know it's not right, but sometimes it seems silly to me when I see a kid with a Curve, Bold or a Tour.. I may be myopic about it but I still view Blackberries as the tool of a business person, not a kid texting or sending pictures, etc.

Exactly. That's why I don't understand why BlackBerrys have such a large market share. Unless you are on a BES tethered to your employer, there are much better options out there.

 

[Frisco]

Exactly. That's why I don't understand why BlackBerrys have such a large market share. Unless you are on a BES tethered to your employer, there are much better options out there.

They're marketed (read: slammed into your face on a daily basis) to us, to our kids and to any squirrel that might run by with more than one acorn in its mouth; scorched earth, carpet bombing marketing tactics yield sales to every demographic, the business man or woman and his or her cleaning ladies and their kids are all told that they NEED a Blackberry.

I suppose that the only thing that tempers that is the self-same tactics by Apple, et al.

 

[bjanow]

....are all told that they NEED a Blackberry.

Let me see if I can shed some light on this subject and perhaps put it to bed. There is no better email tool than the BB, bar none. And it doesn't matter which BB you have either. They are all superior to any "phone" you may have or have had in the past. Someone recently posted here how quickly they set up their Exchange (or whichever) email. Yes, but try that with 2 or more accounts. Impossible. I bought Touchdown for the Eris and it works, sort of. I can set up multiple accounts but only one at a time will sync. I have to manually switch accounts throughout the day if I'm not at a computer. I loved my Tour and I'm sorry it's gone for that reason alone. I really enjoy the Eris and would not give it up, but for multiple corporate email accounts it sucks.

So to sum it up, Eris is great as a phone, navigation, music player, web surfing, things like that. But if you need email as your primary smart phone technology, BB is king. And that includes iPhone, Windows phones and everything in between.

 

[Frisco]

I'm no tech geek, but I had my work e-mail set up and working flawlessly on my Eris in under 5 minutes through active sync.

Yeah, the method is quite step-by-step. I've seen it posted more than once here that corporate email is difficult or impossible to set up in the Eris.

It looks to me like, most often, an unwillingness to take those steps.

 

[mpaquette]

And also keep in mind that corporate email will work natively on the Eris, but only if your employers Exchange server does not enforce a password policy. If that's the case, then you will need to purchase a 3rd party app like Touchdown.