It started like a normal morning, but when I reached my BlackBerry, I got a shock… Why was my screen blank? Pitch black. Pressed the power button. Red LED lit up – 3 seconds, then turned off. No response.
It was OK the night before! It was a BRAND NEW (3 months?) 9900 handset… THE TOP OF THE LINE… and I didn’t abuse it as much as my other Fruit Phone. Nevertheless…
So between that and managing the kids morning routine… long story short I gave up troubleshooting it. Need to go to the service center (“BlackBerry Expert Center” – so they call it). The good thing of buying non-black-market device is that you get a 100% support for mission critical device.
Yes, it’s mission critical. BBM, email, calendar, and address book. Of course the todo list. And my precious meeting notes.
I spent my precious lunch time with the support staff. Very friendly staff. The diagnosis came up after 15 minutes of trouble shooting. No response from the hardware… so “hardware problem, Sir, you’ll get a device swap, in 7 (SEVEN!) working days.”
WHAAAT? Seven days? Seven working days?
(Probably next time I should buy through my telco – I’m on corporate plan so I believe I got a good SLA. Hopefully including the device.)
Not really worried about the data. Got a one month old backup (sigh! I’ll lost some SMS). And got everything backed up OTA in the Exchange server.
Except my BBM contacts. And BBM Groups. And my history of very important BBM messages (“apel malang” and “apel washington” … hmm…). Hopefully my backup works well, when I restore it next week.
Now… WHAT TO DO for the NEXT SEVEN (fracking working) DAYS?
Option 1: Back to my Nokia N8 – now on Symbian Belle (much enjoyable and usable than Symbian^3).
So I got the Exchange ActiveSync running in less than one minute. Thanks to company’s policy of BYOD. (And No Thanks! If this were a corporate device, I could have just called IT and complained).
As I wrote this, address book and calendar information are being synced. It is a breeze doing it over home broadband. Tried it earlier, but OTA sync seemed to take forever, so I cancelled it and spent one day without access to my address book (HORROR!).
Potential problem is data overage. I’m on unlimited BB plan (BlackBerry APN), but not unlimited mobile broadband.
Upside is, I got a better camera for the time being (but no instagram?!?!)
Option 2: crossed my mind if previous idea doesn’t work. Sync my Android Tablet to Exchange and access my PIM information from there.
Upside is I got an unlimited plan there. Downside… extra device to carry and imagine the cumbersomeness of manually doing address book look up in the tablet and calling from another handset.
Option 3: Dump everything on the iPhone, especially the address book… and risking duplicate address book entry (no, it is generous enough to tri-plicate, quad-plicate, quint-plicate my address book entries… common problem in many iPhones to Exchange sync, at least amongst my colleagues).
Managed to get over Day 1. Let’s see how Day 2 goes…
If you get Nokia E71, and don’t want to buy a BlackBerry because of whatsoever reasons… can you be as effective in mobile working?
What do we use BlackBerry for? William tried to share his usage pattern. He’s on corporate plan… and judging by what he shared, he’s also a heavy user. On the other hand, a typical Indonesian Jane/Joe will use less of BlackBerry’s capability.
So, I can think at least few scenarios:
1) Corporate Users, especially if you have BES in place, so you have Exchange calendar and the whole corporate address book in sync with the device,
2) for the typical guys only using BIS (BlackBerry Internet Services), connected to ISP & Internet mails, Facebook, and instant messengers
3) for the heavier users, doing more than email & chatting/social networking…
4) and only in Indonesia – BlackBerry owners without BlackBerry subscription whatsoever. Go away!
Can not comment on Scenario 1 yet.
My BES is still not working (they told us that the contract is being negotiated… ha3x), and I will apparently never experience Nokia E71 on corporate mail sync… well… Few colleagues are using E61i with GoodLink installed. Giving them a full-fledge corporate mobile email (though with stability issues….). Such thing should be available in E71 as well or I can opt for Mail for Exchange solution.
But I guess here, the challenge for Nokia is the out-of-the-box experience, BlackBerry will work right out of the box (sort of, as everything is configured/pushed OTA)… with E71, provisioning for the mobile mail is more tedious.
Scenario 2 for normal users trying to get emails & chatting on their E71?
More relevant probably, as the majority of BlackBerry users in Indonesia are actually BIS users. (Errr, maybe not, most of the owners might not have BIS subscription).
Again, I found out that my E71 still needs a bunch of additional applications (most of them are free, fortunately) before it can fully functioned as mobile mail machine.
It did change with the E75, I heard, which is coming with full email application (Nokia Messaging and Mail for Exchange) pre-installed, even coming with a quick-and-easy setup of free Ovi mail account (“from zero to emailing in 15 minutes”). Reviewed in zdnet blog here and on AAS (slightly ’bout the email apps).
Reviewed by other people already, such as here at E71fanatics and here at Symbian-Addict. In general they’re quite happy with the interface and performance of the app. Some of the negatives mentioned, e.g. HTML support and multiple accounts are already addressed. The latest that I got installed in my handset is “Product Version 5.3 Build 9.5.3.72 (main)”
10 email accounts, including Yahoo, Gmail (and gmail-hosted emails), Windows Live, and Ovi
HTML-enabled
Integration with address book
Folder support
Sync control – when, what
It’s still in beta, so pretty much free at this time.
Comparing to BlackBerry experience, I found few things still critically missing for me:
stronger search functionality: customizable (search by subject, sender, …) and saved search
attachment preview – I don’t want to download the whole attachment to view it
handling of .ics (calendar invitations)
filtering of emails to be delivered to the handset (BB can do this through on their BIS web setting)
rather sluggish performance?
For normobs? Current iteration of Nokia Email should be enough to get them started in the mobile email experience and usage, I think.
Then IM, another killer app, Slick or others (Nimbuzz, Fring, e-Buddy, and others)
No yet an equivalent of BlackBerry Messenger, a messaging system exclusively available for BlackBerry subscribers. But who knows if Ovi will evolve there? (The keyword here is exclusive)
Yahoo, GTalk, ICQ, and AIM works great with Slick and the gang. Doesn’t look as good as the YM/GTalk client in BlackBerry. But does the job well enough. (I haven’t tried to send photos through mobile YM, pls remind me tomorrow….)
Fring is also a good candidate, because they have Skype integration and Facebook client as well. In good network coverage and in WLAN coverage, you can do VoIP (yay!) with your Skype contacts.
VoIP is worth mentioning
… hmm, Nokia E71 has a built-in VoIP/SIP client, that we can configure to access various VoIP services. Free talk with other VoIP users. Besides Skype (and all the IM-based voice chats), I don’t know how popular are these services. There are a bunch in Indonesia (voiprakyat, CBN Talk, etc.), but I still feel that they are a bit too geeky
Facebook?
Nokia E71 users have to stick with the mobile web site. (The E71 firmware 300.21.012 gives a facebook icon on the application menu, a click on it takes us to the m.facebook.com). So BlackBerry leads by far here.
Come on Nokia… you got the S60-Touch Facebook Client, when it’s coming to mainstream? (and to the S40?)
Older BlackBerries (pre OS 4.6 or 4.5) still got the “mobilized” version of the web, not full web browser. Javelin/Bold is another story, as they got a very capable browser plus the proxy/data compression.
So the challenge for Nokia is to minimize the data charges. A single homepage like yahoo! for example might eats several hundred kB of already-so-small-and-so-expensive data quota. Opera Mini will be a nice addition to install in the Nokia E71 for us who live in bandwidth-scarce mobile world.
And finally, cost.
This is where it is going to be interesting.
BlackBerry BIS subscriptions is typically around Axis BB Promo of Rp 100k or Telkomsel/Indosat/XL Rp 150k per month. They also recently offer weekly for 25k-40k rupiah and daily (!) subscription packages – cost you Rp 4k-5k. Generally this is a flat all-you-can eat data usage.
For Nokia E71 users, I suggest them to consider data packages. Yes, a number of alternatives available… XL recently for example offers daily (Rp 2000 for 1 MB), weekly (Rp 10k for 10 MB), and monthly (starting from Rp 20k for 40 MB, Rp 50k for 130 MB, Rp 100k for 320 MB). According to them 1 MB is enough for 2.5 hours of chatting and 50 pages of m.facebook.com.
If Facebook is all what you need… do it via SMS – Axis for example offers two FB SMS packages: weekly @ Rp 1500 or monthly @ Rp 5500… most of the operators offer similar packages.
Chatting? Try Hutch 3 with YM or XL Chat. Also Rp 5k per month. Not bad.
Bottom line, temporary conclusion…
Cost wise E71 should be less expensive v.s. BB, while being able to do what most people need (normobs)…
But preparing E71 (installing applications, configuring) to achieve what BB can do requires extra effort that most people won’t take… This is where BlackBerry shines really bright – remember that it’s not a handset, it’s a service that comes with a handset.
Once these steps are taken, I got mixed feelings, Nokia E71 might be adequate… some limitations here and there (especially the email client), good things there and here. Reliable enough.
I’ll say, if you have your E71 and need to jump into mobile data world, do it. IM, email, browsing, and FB will work just fine. Experience is pleasant enough. I have an interesting suggestion, BTW, go sell the E71 and grab two (yes, 2, or even 3) NexianBerry.
More interesting will be Scenario 3 – the heavy users… Pushing it a bit further… reading RSS, twitter (very important!!!), maps, locations, GPS, multimedia functions, plus photo sharing/uploading and blogging other than Facebook. Oh, and don’t forget synchronization. I will give my E71 a challenge (and a second chance, currently it’s my secondary handset, put into less active number) and write my experience in the next post.
… and I blame it to Citibank Indonesia and Telkomsel.
Received this SMS few days ago:
BlackBerry Bold hingga Rp 5,9 juta & Cicil 0% selama 6bln.Kunjungi exhibition 5-10 Feb di Pacific Place & MKG3.Tgl 11-15Feb di Sency&MTA.INFO 69999 (148 characters)
So I spent my precious time to visit the booth. And… foolish me… blinded by the glittering attraction of that Bold…
Turns out to be eligible for 5.9mio purchase, I have to redeem 140,000 (hundred forty thousands) of Citibank Reward Points. Normal price is Rp 7.1mio (market price of BB Bold is around 6.9mio) and the reward points give you +/- Rp 1mio discount (or Rp 7,- per reward point redeemed while to get 140k points you have to shop for Rp 350mio on that credit card)
My point is to rant about such an OBSCURED and QUESTIONABLE (shrewd is too positive, while scam-ish or irresponsible is a bit too harsh adjective) marketing practice. NOWHERE in the SMS is mentioned about the reward points redemption. NOWHERE.
“Hingga”? It’s so vague… so ambiguous… what do you mean by “hingga”?
So Citibank, next time, please please:
Add “T&C applies” or if you insist an asterisk (“*”) to the SMS, it still fits the 160-character limitation. It costs you nothing. That way we know there’s something fishy…
Put more information in the Website – a quick check, I CAN NOT find an easily discovered info about this promo ON BOTH WEBSITE. It costs you a fraction of nothing.
Don’t expect us (me at least, the web generation) to call your call center and put on hold for more than 5 minutes and STILL GETTING UNINFORMED ABOUT THE T&C. I chatted with a friend that called the call center and he also didn’t realize that there’s T&C applied… he was shocked to find out about this.
Bottom line. Transparency. (This is the 2.0 era, right? Everything is transparent and honest).
Respect us. It was a very interesting SMS and offer — buried amidst a lot of spam SMS (I always delete all advertising SMS after 2 seconds quick glance). You got my attention, but you wasted it…
Nice try, better luck next time.
PS: thanks to my partner in crime. Better luck next time, Sis… scrutinize those customer service officers and read the non existent small prints.
If you want to push data usage, what would you do? Eliminate the barriers of entry: modem price, price of BlackBerry handset, notebook ownership, and price for the subscription.
XL is promoting some new bundles – this week is Jakarta's Computer Expo time:
Modem HSPA (yes, they market it as HSPA, not HSDPA) bundling:
Rp 1.5mil (US $170) with an option for 0% 12-month installment
including 3-month free data subscription (250 MB quota), worth Rp 300k
(but no instagram?!?!)![[image courtesy of Lonelycat Games]](http://duckling.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/shot2.jpg?w=500 "slick")
No yet an equivalent of BlackBerry Messenger, a messaging system 
