i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

I may as well kick the dog when it is down.  Anyone watching investing blogs knows that RIM is tanking.

...

I am not a "long time" Blackberry user, as in "corporate user since the very beginning."  Rather, I got my first Blackberry in pre-iphone/pre-android days.  Now, it was not the most impressive smart phone Verizon had available.  However, it was the most impressive smart phone Verizon had available that did not have a camera.  This was important to me, as the courts I frequented would not let me enter with a camera phone.

Unfortunately, that unit was also obsolete.  I actually tried to get the then upcoming "verizon world phone blackberry", but Verizon sent me on a wild goose chase to the "only person at Verizon" who would sell me one, and he was not the least bit interested in selling me the world phone.

Naturally, a friend of mine was able to get the world phone just a few months later and I was stuck in the inevitable two year contract of death.

All of which was extremely annoying as I was purchasing my first Blackberry just ahead of a trip to Europe.

It was really cool to have the Blackberry though.  I was able to keep up on my email while sitting idly waiting for hearings and the like.  I could tether it to my computer.  Cool stuff.   Not necessarily "cutting edge," but I was the first kid on my block to have these things.

Then when my two year contract of death was up, I got the Blackberry Tour world phone, which was a considerable improvement on the same song.  (Shortly thereafter, my wealthier co-workers started getting iPhones).

But then again, as you know, I blog "open source".  So, in the totem pole of evilness, you can guess that mine goes something like:

Apple

RIM

Microsoft

Google

...

...

(And we are talking bad to good(er) badest at the top.)  Though on any given day, I am willing to shuffle all of the top spots for a good cause.  The irony being that at some static point in time over the years, each of these companies has been on my list of really essential "good guys."

Oh, well.

So, I never had any interest in iPhone.  I had some passing interest in the iPad, which was pretty funny, since the commentators I read were all saying things during the pre-release marketing campaign like, "who would want one of these?"

Which is why all of those commentators have not become rich like Steve Jobs.  Because the answer is, "even Apple haters like me, and especially my wife who doesn't use computers and my daughter who thinks iPods are extremely cool."

I do have an inherited iPod Touch (inherited from my daughter when she got a better one) so I can retrieve email and surf the web when I am near a wireless connection.  But, what I really wanted was Android ... and I was stuck in the two year contract of death.

So, all I could do was read Android websites and learn about all the cool things I could do someday if I could ever actually have an Android.  I even loaded the SDK onto my computer, but the emulation does not run very fast.

But, then I got a Cricket Android, because it was cheap and did not have a monthly commitment.  And, the package is "unlimited everything."  So, if things went well, I could dump Verizon and if things did not go well, I could terminate the Cricket account and still have a functional Android that would latch onto wireless systems.

I offered the Cricket to my wife and my daughter -- neither of whom has a smartphone.  Rejected by both!!  Plus, my wife regularly complains about the sound quality -- I don't know if this is related to Cricket, which I think is on the sprint system, or related to my particular Android device.

And thus, I am still using my Blackberry.  Which I hate.  And which has a screen too small for actual viewing.

But, as i have wasted many lines of type to get to the point, her it is:  my Blackberry Tour is slowly becoming non-functional.  I constantly get the "clock of eternity" telling me to wait while the Blackberry does some unspecified task.  I removed all of my Apps to try to combat this.  So, the Mediafly podcasts are gone and the Pandora music system.  Did I mention I have a Really Long Commute?  (Plus, btw, Pandora was driving me nuts, because it was constantly requiring permissions for new sub-websites.  This was really difficult to deal with in the car, on the freeway, trying to read the miniscule Blackberry Screen and figure out what I was supposed to respond to and whether I really needed to give this site permissions.)

I am think that perhaps it needs to be purged and the software reinstalled?  But I do not know this to be true.  All I now is that my 2-year contract of death is up AND my Blackberry Tour doesn't work anymore.

So ... why would I get another Blackberry device?  Both my iTouch and Android phone access my company Exchange Server just fine.  Actually, more than "fine," they are each more useable than the Blackberry.  Well, except for the fact I do not like virtual keyboards.

And, the standard data package is much cheaper than the Enterprise Blackberry price.  Pay more, get less ... RIM motto.

So, I am leaning toward a Verizon Android and a new 2 year contract of death.  But, Verizon refuses to offer the phone that I want.  That is: 4g, world phone, slider keyboard.

I am sure they HAVE that phone somewhere.  They are just waiting.  The week after I receive and set up my 3g world phone with slider keyboard (currently, Droid 3), they will of course announce Droid 4, the 4g version.  And I will have to wait until the end of my 2-year contract of death to get it.

As a parting comment about the Blackberry Tour, which no longer works very well -- I was really happy with the World Phone aspect -- which I blogged on extensively at the time it became useful.

Which is why I don't particularly want the "4g, no world chip, no keyboard" version of Droid.

Cricket's not so bad, so long as I don't actually make any calls on the phone.