Three weeks ago, I was lent a BlackBerry Storm to try out. This had been the fourth ever BlackBerry device I had used since 2003. They’ve definitely gone a long way since the first batch of ‘berries. The phones were a reflection of the company — although they took pride in claiming the best data compression technology for phones even way back, their phones were not attractive enough. That changed with the Pearl series, opening up BlackBerry into the B to C market.
I’m happy that RIM’s presence in the Philippines has upgraded itself into a more intimate level. Back then, any semblance of RIM or the Blackberry had to come from the corporate marketing arm of telcos Globe and SMART. Warranty took forever because the items had to be shipped to Canada. Case in point: my Blackberry Pearl is still under the care of SMART’s Infinity guys and it’s been roughly 2 years since I last saw it. So I was really curious to know what the deal was with RIM coming to the Philippines. My guesses were: