Mobile managers face a tough choice when weighing which mobile
platform or operating system to deploy to mobilize the workforce.
There's BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Symbian, Linux and
J2ME. How do they choose? Which platforms perform which functions
well, and where do they fall short?We at SearchMobileComputing.com want to make that choice a
little easier. We've assembled a team of experts and asked them to
weigh the good and bad of each mobile platform. On the fourth
Wednesday of each month, we'll present the pluses and minuses of a
different platform. With this series of stories, we hope to help
you choose the platform that's right for your company and help you
cast aside those that may not fit your needs.
Part 1: BlackBerry. BlackBerry is among the most popular
mobile platforms. Experts say it's great for mobile email, but its
functionality as an application device needs some
fine-tuning.
Unless you've lived under a rock for the past few years, you
know all about BlackBerry.
You know it's that mobile platform that shoots e-mail to you
instead of making you go fetch. You know that it's said to be
highly addictive, earning it the nickname "CrackBerry." And you've
undoubtedly recently read that overuse of the devices can damage
your thumbs, prompting doctors to start diagnosing "BlackBerry
thumb."
When it comes to mobile platforms or operating systems,
BlackBerry sits pretty high on the mountain, mostly because of its
mobile e-mail capabilities. In a recent informal poll on
SearchMobileComputing.com, 15% of respondents said BlackBerry is
the most prevalent mobile platform in their organization.
BlackBerry ranked third overall, coming in behind Palm OS at 36%
and Windows Mobile at 26%.
"It's been kind of the gold standard for mobile e-mail," said
Gartner Inc.'s Todd Kort.
Right now, BlackBerry's closest competitor in the mobile e-mail
space is GoodLink, followed by Nokia/Intellisync. Microsoft Mobile
could catch up, but it needs another year or so of work.
Jack Gold, principal and founder of J.Gold Associates, said that
when it comes to choosing mobile platforms and devices, an
e-mail-centric business can benefit from BlackBerry, but if a
company is looking for more than mobile e-mail, like application
integration and other advanced functionality, then BlackBerry may
not be the right choice.
The Good
Experts agree that BlackBerry, made by Canadian company Research
In Motion Ltd. (RIM), has its share of solid features. It's highly
secure, it integrates well with other platforms, it works with
several carriers, and it can be deployed globally. It is easy to
manage, has a longer than usual battery life, and has a small
form-factor with an easy-to-use keyboard.
"Everyone else falls down in at least one of those categories,"
Kort said, referring to other mobile platforms and operating
systems such as Palm, Windows Mobile, and Symbian.
As a mobile e-mail provider, BlackBerry is fast, Kort said.
BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the back-end software that allows the
handsets to send and receive e-mail, pushes the e-mail out to the
device. Microsoft Mobile, he said, is a sort of "fast pull" e-mail
system, which means that the device has to retrieve the e-mail
instead of its being pushed to the device by the server.
BlackBerry also has better support for e-mail attachments than
its competitors. Because the device takes breaks and nearly shuts
down momentarily between keystrokes, battery life is extended,
reducing consumption.
BlackBerry has also grown in worldwide use, meaning it can be
supported in pretty much any major country and the devices can
travel and not lose functionality.
"One of the great things about BlackBerry is they have coverage
in many major countries," Kort said. "You can go roaming anywhere
on business and still access your corporate e-mail."
Dan Taylor, managing director of the Mobile Enterprise Alliance,
agreed that BlackBerry's global support is a strong selling
point.
Taylor also noted that RIM and BlackBerry have "done an
excellent job of making a device that works especially well in
managing e-mail in a mobile environment. The company holds patents
for the thumbwheel and QWERTY keyboard found on the company's
devices, and anyone who's used a BlackBerry will agree that it's an
excellent device with great performance and battery life."
The Bad
While BlackBerry is good at pushing mobile e-mail, there are
still some areas where the platform lags. Most experts are quick to
point out that BlackBerry is still struggling to make its name as a
useful tool to access business-critical applications.
"They don't have a huge library of third-party software," Kort
said. "Too many people buy a BlackBerry and never get any
third-party software. In the minds of most people, it's positioned
as an e-mail-only utility."
 | | | | | It's a good device for doing
e-mail, but it would be a bad choice if what you're looking for is
a way to deploy business-critical applications to mobile
workers.
Jack Gold
Principal & FounderJ.Gold
Associates |
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| |
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Avi Greengart of Current Analysis added that "the popularity of the
BlackBerry has meant that there are some third-party programs
written expressly for it, including Google Maps, but the total
number of general productivity and consumer options is minuscule
compared to the library of applications for the Palm OS, Microsoft
and Symbian."
Some applications available on Palm OS and Windows Mobile, but
not on BlackBerry, include GPS navigation kits, Physician's Desk
Reference, games, weight-loss programs, and Bible study, Greengart
said.
Taylor agreed: "RIM has a well-developed partner community of
companies developing applications to run on BlackBerry, but the
BlackBerry device cannot support 'thick' applications like those on
Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones."
According to Taylor, large-footprint client applications are not
suited for BlackBerry. With BlackBerry deployments, most of the
application is sitting on a server, with a small, lightweight
client application on the mobile device. A WIN32 application is too
large -- BlackBerry requires something much smaller because much of
the computing is done elsewhere. "The BlackBerry is an upgraded
pager that has remained focused on e-mail and long battery life,"
Taylor said. "Adding applications means adding computing power and
losing battery life. In order to keep the battery life, the device
remains light on the computing power, which means that the network
must always be there." BlackBerry generally isn't meant to work
offline, he added.
BlackBerry also can fall short in synchronized, non-real-time
environments, Taylor said, because it is linked directly to a set
of carrier services for mobile data.
"Many companies choose to mobilize workers in an occasionally
connected model that relies on WLAN connectivity and cradle-based
synchronization," Taylor said. "Because RIM's sole sales channel
for BlackBerry is the wireless operators, the company does not have
a way to provide devices or solutions to pure enterprise mobile
solutions that do not have an associated carrier service. This is
the way companies like Symbol and Intermec remain strong players in
enterprise WLAN, RFID, warehouse, shop floor, and logistics
applications."
Elsewhere, Kort said, BlackBerry doesn't offer much by way of
memory and storage, which introduces a dilemma. BlackBerry could
boost its storage and memory capabilities and take them off the
network, but that would chop down battery life.
The Indifferent
Depending on how you look at it, the BlackBerry scroll wheel and
user interface (UI) could be things of genius or great sources of
frustration, Greengart said.
@21508 "The BlackBerry UI is geared toward quick access to
e-mail," he said. "A scroll wheel is great for moving quickly
through multiple messages but is possibly the worst control
mechanism for initiating and ending phone calls. RIM has addressed
this specific complaint on some recent models by adding dedicated
'Send' and 'End' keys, but the general tilt of the UI remains.
"Without a touch-screen or five-way navigation pad, scrolling
around the calendar, entering appointments, and navigating from
application to application are compromised," Greengart continued.
"For frequent users, RIM turns this into a strength by
incorporating numerous keyboard/scroll wheel shortcuts. Similar to
WordStar or WordPerfect back in the CP/M and DOS days, once you
memorize these unnatural behaviors, you can be surprisingly
productive -- far more so than if you have to pull everything down
from a menu, like in Windows Mobile, or even the often elegant
simplicity of the Palm OS layout."
Another good-or-bad-depending-on-how-you-look-at-it feature of
BlackBerry is that it doesn't actually have an open operating
system; instead, it uses a Java environment. According to
Greengart, that can be a plus or a minus.
"For IT managers, it means the device can be locked down,
without the threat of rogue programs, viruses or
productivity-sapping MP3 players," he said. Some users may miss out
on certain features and functions, however, because they are not
Java supported.
The Conclusion
Overall, experts agreed that a BlackBerry deployment is optimal
for a large-scale deployment in an e-mail-centric business. For
smaller deployments or deployments that require access to several
thick applications, however, another platform may be needed.
"So the strong pieces of the BlackBerry model [are] excellent
mobile e-mail and strong support from the carrier community, [but
this] is also a liability as RIM tried to take the device into
occasionally connected enterprise computing environments where WLAN
connectivity dominates," Taylor said.
Gold added that BlackBerry is good for access to some of the
"simpler" applications -- such as contact list, time management,
and field force applications -- but the somewhat weak screen
resolution may hinder the use of some applications, especially
those with rich GUIs.
"BlackBerry is a good choice for e-mail-centric users who also
want some application capability," Gold said. "It's a good device
for doing e-mail, but it would be a bad choice if what you're
looking for is a way to deploy business-critical applications to
mobile workers."