After 6 years happily thumb tapping my way around my email and messages with the real keyboard of the BlackBerry smart phone platform I defected to the Apple iPhone back in July (even though the new iPhone 5 was imminent).  It's such a shame - I've been a big fan of Research In Motion's BlackBerry approach and the integrated nature of their software, but to me this highlights how even strong and successful technology companies can lose their way and loyal customers with the wrong strategy and end user experience in a very short space of time.  In today's technolgy landscape, if you aren't always challenging your current product range and reinventing yourself, your toast!

Things were so different back in April 2006 when I followed Ross Mayfield's advice and replaced my Treo PDA and Sony Ericcson K700i phone with a BlackBerry 8700v smart phone, instead of the HP iPaq and Sony Ericsson P990i I had been looking at.  It was great advice!  I loved the simplicity of the click wheel interface and the way the email, messaging, contacts and phone functions were so elegantly integrated.  It actually worked well as a phone too.  Along the way I ...