The day that I always dreaded finally arrived on Sunday, September 10, 2017. On that date, which I will always remember, I had to pay a final farewell to my beloved Blackberry and begin to embrace the brave new world of smartphones (hello iPhone 7S).
I tried my best to keep the love affair going but had to eventually face the cold, cruel reality that the world has turned its back on you and moved on to shinier objects. My relationship troubles began about a month ago when my Blackberry Bold started to show the signs of age.
I started looking for phone repair shops in North Atlanta and discovered that there are a lot of them out there and that none of them knew the first thing about Blackberrys.
I had a lot of conversations with techies named Mallory or Trevor that were extremely puzzled about this vintage gizmo that I was still using. (Image thanks to https://goo.gl/images/aL1lsy)
Who needs an iPhone when you have the best technology of 2006?
I hung on to my Blackberry because of my love for their keyboard. I had convinced myself that touchpad typing was the gateway to hell and that an email that would take me seconds with my thumbs blazing on my Blackberry would now take an eternity with those super sensitive, precious little touch screens.
And by the way, why the H*LL do you have to switch over to get numbers? (Image thanks to MemesHappen).
On Sunday, September 10, 2017, I finally had to face the reality that a change was needed.
While I proudly proclaimed that I was a member of the new 1% (sadly the market share of Blackberry - truth be told it is actually 0.5%) and felt a kindred spirit to Kim Kardashian (a proud Blackberry owner) I had to move on. I did not want to become a hoarder that scoured Amazon for refurbished Blackberry phones that would help me keep the dream alive (guilty as charged).
I now own an iPhone 7 and am looking forward to the brave new world. I had my time to grieve my loss and reminisce about the good times we had. I did have my brief bout with anger (damn you RIM and John Chen). I also realized that I could not wait three days to order a Blackberry KeyOne. I had to make the move.
So ... apologies in advance for the "what was he thinking or drinking" emails that may come out of my iPhone in the next few weeks. I am blazing a trail and am not looking back (that said - I may now have to look at my paper based Franklin Planner).
