OK, a couple of things. The 8703 is ancient. The 8830 is not too new either, but its dual band for your folks that go overseas. They can add a GSM SIM to it and use it that way. CDMA isn't to prevalent anywhere but in the US.
The Curve is the newest model to go to Verizon. Typically CDMA carriers get models about 1 year after GSM. The newest BB handheld coming to Verizon is the storm which is the all touch screen model. You can typically find BB OS updates for the Verizon BB's here: http://vzw.smithmicro.com/blackberry/ So for your users I would go with the Curve for folks who want a full QWERTY keyboard. Pearl (AKA Lady Blackberry) is an option as well for folks who don't care about typing. The Storm is getting rave reviews as well. From: Joe Heaton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:31 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Blackberry question Hmm, looking like the arguments for not going BB aren't really valid arguments anymore. Our carrier is Verizon, and they offer the Pearl, Curve, the 8703e and the 8830 World Edition. Any recommendations as to model? Looking at the specs on Verizon's website, I'm only seeing the version of the desktop software. Is that the same as what will be on the phone? If so, the 8830 has 4.2, and the Curve has 4.3. Should I hold out to see if they can deliver 4.5? Joe Heaton Employment Training Panel From: Martin Blackstone [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:25 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Blackberry question Yea, it's no problem. Even Office 2007 attachments work for me. Granted I'm running the 4.5 BB OS which is out for some carriers and in beta for others. I've been running it forever and it rocks. Between that and the latest BES version, they have made up for a lot of those functions that were lacking from BB but already in WM. 4.5 features. . BlackBerry Maps with Points of Interest (H) . Improved media player with playlist support and automatic playlist generation (H) . Voice note recording (H) . Video recording on Curve models (H) . Streaming support for YouTube and Sling Player (H) . Microsoft Office document editing with DocumentsToGo (H) . Native format attachment downloading (S) . HTML e-mails (S) . Over-the-air device upgrades (S) . Free/busy calendar lookup (S) . Searching the server for old e-mail messages (S) From: Joe Heaton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:14 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Blackberry question Is there ever an issue with e-mail attachments? For instance, someone sends you a word document. Can you open that on your BB? My understanding was that there was no native support for Office docs. How about PDFs? Again, I'm not trying to flame here, just trying to get a better understanding of what the real truth is. Thanks, Joe Heaton Employment Training Panel From: Martin Blackstone [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:01 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Blackberry question This was something I posted on another list and I admit I may be off base on some of it. The device: Frequent OS updates. RIM makes OS updates available and free. Whereas with WM, you are pretty much stuck with the version that came on your phone. I'm not saying it's impossible to get updated WM versions, just that it's not a given like it is on BB. While my WM5 users are still on WM5, my BB users have gone from 3.x to 4.x, and 4.5 coming soon. Each of those offers a slew of new or upgraded features. To me that has to be one of the best parts of the whole system. Sure some WM users get upgrades, but you are at the mercy of the provider and not all of them are so generous. Battery life rocks. I can go days and days and days without a recharge. Sure, some WM devices do that too, but not all. Since RIM not only builds the OS, but the phones, there are no issues with underpowered CPU's / hardware. Some WM devices are just damn slow. That's because the OS and device are not designed together. BES: I don't have to upgrade my whole Exchange environment to get new server side features. Just my BES server which takes about 30 minutes and is free as long as I have a valid support contract which isn't too expensive at all. Centrally managed. I can view all users, all user statistics, etc in one screen. Right now I'm looking at all my users and their PIN's. Plus their status, last contact date and time, sent / received messages and the times, filtered messages, pending one. I can create filters for my users on the fly if need be. I can set policies and deploy software. In the next version of BES I will be able to do OTA OS upgrades of devices. I can enable / disable PIM sync data from the server side at a fairly granular level if I wished. I can see what the users device is and all the specs on the device. Model, OS version, hardware, software, applications. For example from the BES server, I can see that I have Gmail, Google Maps, Jewel Rumble, and Live Search installed on my BB. Nobody can connect a device to my BES without getting an account setup by me. No rogue phones, etc. From: Joe Heaton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:51 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Blackberry question Martin, Sounds like you prefer Blackberry to WM. Can you give me some reasons for this? Not asking for flames, but real, honest reasons. Joe Heaton Employment Training Panel From: Martin Blackstone [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:44 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Blackberry question Your execs sound like smart guys. Here is a product comparison. http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/professional/#tab_tab_compare Professional is essentially for smaller deployments. It's like BES SBS. It won't support over 30 BB devices. From: Joe Heaton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 12:07 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Blackberry question Can anyone tell me how the Blackberry Professional Software stacks up against BES? I'm being asked to give a comparison between the WinMobile devices we're using, and Blackberry devices. If the execs decide to go with Blackberry against my recommendations, I'd prefer to go with the Professional software, if it will meet our needs. I'm looking at the Blackberry website currently, but would like to hear personal, real world experiences, vs. the sales info on the site. Thanks, Joe Heaton AISA Employment Training Panel 1100 J Street, 4th Floor Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 327-5276 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
