Setting Up a Consumer Blackberry: Google Makes it a Cinch

Yesterday I went to T-Mobile to get a new Blackberry 8900 for Susan, who wanted to switch back from the iPhone.  There were a bunch of things she did not like about the iPhone.  She never got used to typing on the glass keyboard and wanted to have a real keyboard again.  She also was super unhappy when we were in Europe this summer that I was using my Blackberry with abandon due to T-Mobile’s excellent international email roaming, while she was afraid of even touching her iPhone due to all the horror stories about AT&T’s data roaming charges.  She never really got into downloading apps onto the iPhone, so that she really wound up with primarily the downsides and none of the upside of an iPhone.

I was not looking forward to setting up the Blackberry, because somehow I remembered from the last time I had done so that it was quite involved.  But I couldn’t have been more wrong.  From start to finish, the setup took about 30 minutes and was as smooth as could be.  First, I downloaded Google Sync and got a calendar and address book sync going.  Then, I added email  again by connecting to her gmail account simply using the “Setup e-mail” icon right off the Blackberry.  After adding a gmail account the Blackberry itself suggested downloading a “plugin” that provides extra gmail functionality inside Blackberry email.   Finally, I added Google Maps and Twitterberry (waiting for Socialscope to be general release).

So far everything is working incredibly well.  Bottom line is that for a consumer who is entirely on google (calendar, address book and email), a Blackberry is a great fit and super easy to set up.