Tamara Khandaker
Staff Writer
When it first entered the technology landscape,
no one could have predicted the transformative role the BlackBerry would play in everyday communications.
Its primary market was business professionals—the email feature allowed for quick exchanges, without having to be bogged down behind a computer screen to respond to emails. A decade or so later, the BlackBerry has evolved, adding to its features an exclusive instant messaging service (BBM), and a range of other applications. These improvements have resulted in an explosion in popularity, and a community of obsessive and addicted users of the “crackberry”, as it has come to be known in popular culture.
Last week, when a server failed in the UK, 40 million BlackBerry users were left without their fix of BBMs, emails, and mobile browsing, as the problem spread. A BlackBerry spokesperson said that the outage was caused by a “core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure”. The problem, which lasted three days, brought about a slew of attacks from displeased customers and PR madness to the already struggling RIM. Many have marked this the beginning of the end for the Canadian-based company, which has already seen its share stock value drop by 60 per cent in the past year.
I’ve been a happy BlackBerry user for quite some time and I for one do not think this is the end for RIM. When I noticed that BBM wasn’t working, and realized that many of my friends were having the same problem, I didn’t panic—
I figured that if it was a real outage, RIM was obviously scrambling to fix it and the service would be back up in no time. In the meantime, my texting and calling features were still functional. I also had access to a computer, and the internet to check my email, Twitter, and update my Facebook status. The reason so many people were going insane and reacting so angrily was because of the unhealthy dependence people have on their phones.
We all have that one friend who never gets off his or her BlackBerry. They come to social gatherings, but the whole time, they’re staring down at their crotch and furiously typing away on their phone. When they look up, they appear to be in their own world, inert with an impassive look in their eyes. They become fidgety when their BlackBerry is out of reach, and put it under their pillow at night so they can feel it ring and answer it.
These are signs of addiction. One woman on news24.com’s forum likened the loss of BBM to having a hand chopped off, and demanded that RIM fix the problem immediately—her 12 year old was frustrated at not being able to BBM her 60 contacts.
People have not only come to see their BlackBerry as their friend, but they’ve based large portions of their social, academic, and professional lives on the idea that it is impossible for the BlackBerry network to ever fail. RIM manages its own traffic on a private network, with only four centres all around the world. Because the infrastructure is so consolidated, a tiny glitch in the system left the entire network exposed and vulnerable, At the end of the day, RIM is a corporation that makes mistakes and is definitely not perfect.
We can’t return to a time period not dominated by smartphones, but some of us have placed too many eggs in one basket. The reason so many of us went crazy in those three days and told the world that this was the end for BlackBerry was because we are too dependent on the device. So instead of swearing off BlackBerry forever, just have a backup plan.
