Who’s the boss?
The only people I ever see actually using Blackberrys tend to be high-level executives. Why is this?
It’s simple: Because they can get away with it. Only the boss can sit in a conference room twiddling around with a Blackberry, their attention a thousand miles away, while everyone else is working on the problem at hand.
Still, how does this explain the cultural difference between executives and their Blackberries and teens with their mobile phone SMS messaging? Is it only because of the enterprise email integration inherent in Blackberrys, something kids and non-business users don’t need? Or is there some other reason? Is it something about the keyboard-based UI?
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3 responses to “Why do Executives use Blackberrys?”
Another reason: cost. Companies can’t justify them for lower-level executives because it’s too expensive. Also, the high-level executives expect it (it’s a standard perq).
It’s not the keyboard UI, as I don’t see the same thing with Treos. I think the Treo really hit the exec crowd later than the Blackberry, so the Blackberry traditionally indicates executive status more than the Treo (which seems to be more of an on-the-go geek thing in the circles in which I run.
In other words, like the previous poster, I don’t think it has anything to with the the UI or the device itself. It seems clear to me that it’s more of a sociological thing than a device-based thing.
I don’t see “regular people” cracked out on Treos, either. The only people I ever see hypnotized by their mobile devices, typing away on little keyboards, are executives. I’ve never even seen teenagers with that type of rapturous focus on a little screen, except when they’re playing games.