I recently upgraded my phone and got a Blackberry 8310 Curve which is quite nice and didn’t cost me anything extra. There’s just a couple of things with it that I don’t like, and one thing that really pisses me off. Firstly, RIM (manufacturers of Blackberries) have very cunningly created their own protocol which email must use, and suprise….you have to buy it from them.

I have a very stable and useable email system of my own, which I can access through any of the commonly accepted protocols already available, IMAP, POP and webmail inclusive. So why won’t my Blackberry access any of these? Because RIM want to sell more copies of their Blackberry Enterprise Server.

Even if your mobile provider gives you access to an email retrival system (O2 does this for me) it means I am SEVERELY restricted in what I can do with my email. Currently I have about 500 emails a day coming in and being filed very nicely with procmail and it works like a charm, except when I want to get any of this with my Blackberry. The best I can do is to forward emails based on some vague rules to my Blackberry’s email account.

RIM say that I should be using a Microsoft Exchange server, but even that wouldn’t help as it would only give me access to my main Inbox, which 90% of the time isn’t where my mail will end up. If RIM had simply let me access my mail via IMAP like any sane person would, I could access any and all of my mail just as easily from anywhere.

So, their email client doesn’t support IMAP/POP, what about another email client? No, that won’t work either because Blackberry applications are very cleverly routed to the internet via a proprietary and obscure transport system called Blackberry Internet Services. In plain English this means that you can download as many real mail clients as you like, but none of them will be able to access the internet unless RIM give the word, which they won’t do.

Alright, how about webmail access? No again, RIM seem to have done something very clever behind the scenes to stop webmail applications from working in the Blackberry browser, and you can’t use another browser (like Opera Mini) for the reasons described in the paragraph above.

Lets keep this brief before I start hitting my Blackberry with a hammer and claiming the insurance. Do I like my Blackberry? Well yes, in a way. I mean the GPS facility is nice and sure there’s some good features, I like the QWERTY keyboard and the voice recognition for example. Would I get another Blackberry? No, never. Probably not even if they fixed the crippled email system.

Would I recommend a Blackberry to a business user? I know a couple of people who are after new phones and they’ve asked me what I think. No, I could not recommend a Blackberry to a mobile business user for several reasons, but mainly that email setup which I lay awake at night muttering obscenities about.

I really, really wish I’d had a play with some of the other smartphones around before getting this one, even if it ran Windows Mobile I think I would be happier with it. For gods sake, I’ve even thought I might be better off with an IPhone!

I’m going to bed now, to stay up all night regretting my decision. Just think it through before you follow the flock and get a Blackberry.