Ariel Segall.com Blog by Cloud Mobile Forms

Image courtesy from Crackberry

Open letter to my Friends at Blackberry :

Dear Sirs :

I have been a LOYAL Blackberry user since the days of the 950 pager.  Today, I own a Bold 9000 and I have been dreaming for the last 2 weeks on my new 9800 .

Presently, my household owns 2 iPhones ( my two teenagers – obviously ) , one 9700 that belongs to my boss ( read my wife ) and my super duper 9000.  Oh yeah, and I almost forgot – I bought myself an iPad, which is just the best gadget my hands have ever touched.

The oxymoron for this story is that , I make a living selling Blackberry Apps and Solutions.  Yes, you read it right….. I make a living selling Blackberry Solutions so that my Kids can play with their iPhones .

But now, I also read my news and research the web ( for my business ) using my iPad.  HEY !! Jim & Mike – please do not stop reading – keep on reading !!!

If we are to compare ” Apples to Apples ” or in this particular case ” Apples to Berries ” , I will still  keep my Blackberry as long as my friends at RIM really listen to the market and make some smooth adjustments to their marketing and merchandising departments.

I am not a professional blogger, and I wish you could see my notepad with all my ideas and concerns linked together as a drawing board to write this article… Yes, I now that there is an App for that, but will do my best to just point out my ideas and let you link them together.

1 ) Please Guys – Make some noise !!!

6.0 + 9800 not only is a big deal for me, but could represent the survival last resource for RIM in this fast pace mobile market, where sometimes,  sexiness and vanity  rules over reliability  and committment .

Marketing Rule #1 – it is not about your product , it is about how your clients will perceive your product

An iPhone is a content delivery, productivity and personal management tool that also can place calls, and sarcastically it includes the word “phone” as part of its name .

Blackberry is always referred first as a smartphone …. ????

Marketing Rule #2 – whatever you promise, make sure you deliver .

iPhone does it consistently and  coherently .  They have playgrounds called Apple Stores to help you to dream and fall in love, and then once you leave that store, people keep dreaming not wanting to wake up by experiencing an ongoing customer experience with no hurdles on the road .

What Hurdles …. let me just illustrate some :

a ) Memory – even at 512 Mb ( not to make reference to my frustrating 128 Mb on my 9000 ) you are limiting my ability to compulsively download and purchase apps. A profitable behavior that I learned from Apple.

I just hope that the 9800 will allow you to have as many apps as memory you could hold on your SD card.

Blackberry memory issues for the New Blackberry 9800 ? I hope NOT !!!

It is just UNACCEPTABLE that as per latest Distimo Report , these two apps – Memory Booster RAM Optimizer and QuickPull Free made the top 10 list of most downloaded applications at Blackberry App World.

b ) The other night my two kids asked me to watch a You Tube video of  Blackberry’s 6.0 on their iPhones.  These two sophisticated early adopters actually acknowledged the upcoming UI and expressed some positive attitude, but I couldn’t comment on when, what, where is going to be the big event of getting one for our household.

I just miss  those memories of standing on a line since 5 am at Boca Mall to purchase the first Apple and similar experiences for last two releases as well.

c ) Two of my best ” mature adopters ” friends that work for a Fortune 500 company named with 3 letters,  just bought the latest 4.0 iPhone . You want to know why ? Because the company announced that they will honor 2000 iPhones to be incorporated to the company’s exchange server.

Please note that these baby boomers had regular phones prior to their new acquisition.  Not even Apple expected such a reaction on the 4.0, and my best guess is that the gross of the mature market adopters are starting to accept these new devices. Where does Blackberry stands ?

2 ) Business Wise – Blackberry Rules  - Hands down no more words…..

When it comes to C-level mobile needs, speed, reliability and security, there is no better smartphone to deliver emails, keep notes and manage collaboration calendars than the Blackberry .

Yes indeed, iPhone and Android are escalating the enterprise world, but when they will match Blackberry’s security levels and user will realize that IT Policies no longer will allow them to use all those “sexy” apps, then everything will boil down to traditional ” exchange tools ( for now ) ” and then they will realize that :

.- screen real estate for composing emails  on all three smartphones – is about the same

.- BB Messenger – excels when compared to any other mobile messaging  tool

.- Blackberry’s email app functionality and connectivity with 3rd party services hasn’t been matched yet by any competitor

.- Any other productivity application that really matters for the enterprise will be touch screen friendly as long as pre-selected options are accessible, otherwise an actual  Keyboard will be much more wanted than a touchscreen UI.

Bottom line, I will buy my next 9800 instead of an iPhone 4.0 with my AT&T upgrade incentive and I will still recommend anyone to buy a Blackberry , but I implore at my friends at Blackberry to help me not to have second thoughts and to help to educate your clients, why Blackberry still rules.

I decided to leave for my next article :

a ) Why carriers still love the Blackberry over the iPhone

b ) How much cost carriers to maintain an iPhone in their networks as opposed to a Blackberry

c ) My mobile activities benchmark report when comparing an iPhone vs a Blackberry

d ) My take on the Android phones

and many more , but most important of all – what do you think ? Please comment

Dear Readers :

For those that have been following this blog and wondered why I have not been posting lately any Blog…. I have great news – I am back and thank you for your support.

For the last 8 months, my team and I  had been submerged into the development of what we believe is going to be a great tool for individual productivity and for corporate profitability.

This tool will help small and medium  businesses to Reduce Cost – Drive Innovation and Improve Business Agility

I am proud to introduce eSurvey .

eSurvey will empower you to transform  any BlackBerry smartphone into a powerful forms manager and efficient multi-media data collection device, whether it is for gathering statistical data, issuing real time incident reports, performing market research or whatever other on-site activity that requires an e-form. Quickly and easily create, modify and deploy directly from your Blackberry all forms to your subscribed Blackberry smartphones and simultaneously release data and reports to your cloud with BoxdotNet, social networks and your own back-office with customizable web services.

eSurvey is NOT a month-to-month service. There are no long term contracts or commitments on your part. You simply pay a YEARLY ONE TIME FEE for the number of licenses you plan to use. Our business model is built around your success. Create your own templates and use them as much as you please.

Don’t Try It – Just Download your FREE Version and you will be empowered to create your own forms up to 5 questions. From your Blackberry browser visit this link to download your FREE application :

http://www.BoxSurvey.net

Do you like what you see – then visit our web site to Upgrade your license to our Enterprise version to unleash the power of Unlimited Questions and connectivity to the cloud with Box.net

With eSurvey Enterprise version you will get a FREE 1Gb account at Box.net

eSurvey gives you an end-to-end solution. Once you collect information with your Blackberry , the information is stored in your cloud with Box.net . You can then use our Google Apps integration to monitor your information and our BI tools  to configure tables charts and graphs for dynamic, real-time data analysis.

For more information about eSurvey please visit this site : http://www.cloudmobileforms.com/

Blackberry, seeking to revolutionize the smartphone industry in the same way Apple transformed the whole industry, invited Apple CEO Steve Jobs to be the keynote speaker at WES 2010. At the conference, Jobs will unveil the bbPad, Blackberry’s latest tablet smartphone, starting at $498.99, a price that was 0.0001 percent lower than some analysts predicted.

The bbPad will be the most advanced technology in a magical dream and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price, but yet it won’t have a touchscreen.

Here below you can see a picture of Steve Jobs showing the new bbPad during his rehersal for his presentation.

Steve Jobs showing the new bbPad

The new bbPad will also be part of Box.net new top secret initiative, also launched today, called Space Computing – for more information please visit http://sites.box.net/spacecomputing/

In today’s world, you can view and share files on-the-go using your mobile device.

But can you actually READ your files on your mobile device ?

There is big difference between viewing and reading a file. When viewing a file,  you will actually be able to see ALL content embedded into that file , but when you read a file you actually will be empowered to a “call to action”  activity after grasping the information you are looking for.

Cloud computing is still into its initial baby steps . To bring the power of  cloud computing  from PC users to the mobile world, doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to display on the smartphone ALL information available on your corporate backend.  The real power of cloud mobility is to JUST BRING and properly display on a Clear and Readable format the strictly necessary information for the mobile executive to be empowered for making an accurate informed decision.

Hence, when downloading applications into your state of the art smartphone, keep in mind that you need TWO rugged mobile applications instead of just a single mobile portal for your corporate world.

These applications are :

1 )  An application interface with your corporate content  for easily selecting and rapidly connecting mobile executives  to the exact information and functionality they need.

2 ) An easily accessible collaboration portal that will allow you to securely  manage a shared online workspace where you can anytime from anywhere invite others to view, edit, add,comment, exchange feedback, assign tasks and collaborate in an organized and  centric manner around each particular file or document that you desire.

As you could expect, there are hundreds of solution providers for these two applications, but when it comes to taking a big step towards working more efficiently, while maximizing your ROI , then these two companies excel :

Box.net

Box.net  provides a secure, easy-to-use and cost effective solution to share and collaborate your projects with your staff, outside vendors and clients. It avoids headaches by providing flexible storage online, Box.net connects people socially and professionally, enabling them to collaborate, share, and access their important files securely and easily, from anywhere and for free. Furthermore, being a SaaS solution, it offers significant savings in both cost and IT overhead with respect to legacy enterprise collaboration tools like Microsoft SharePoint . Box customers estimate that they save tens of thousands of dollars in operational efficiency by using Box to share and collaborate online

Webalo.com

The Webalo  Mobile Dashboard is a hosted service that provides an interface for easily selecting and rapidly connecting mobile executives to the exact information and functionality they need. It makes any smartphone as powerful as the enterprise providing users with access through databases, reports, websites, and XML web services.

The best time to negotiate any deal on a face to face meeting outside your office and provide an unmatchable  customer experience is  by being able to provide an immediate  right answer during the actual meeting and then, take on site ,the proper follow up “call to action” activity after the interaction is completed.

Successful Mobile Executives need to be Empowered with what they need and what they want it from  anywhere at anytime.

berryFORMS once again is adding more value for its customers and has signed a new reseller contract with Webalo to empower our clients to connect Blackberry smartphones to their vital enterprise data and tasks that their mobile work force rely on. Webalo was founded (and is run by) IT industry veterans – people who have successfully changed the way in which businesses use software to improve operations and their bottom lines.

The Webalo Mobile Dashboard is the fastes, easy, and affordable alternative to time-consuming, costly mobile application development. Webalo’s solutions require No Coding. Instead, it provides a wizard-style interface for easily selecting and rapidly connecting users to the exact functionality they need. Webalo combines functionality and information from any enterprise program and consolidates it in a single smartphone menu – a personalized, instantly accessible set of choices that makes mobile workers more efficient and productive.

We can present all kinds of evidence to prove that you can connect your enterprise data and tasks to your smartphone in hours, but you’re the best eyewitness. Start a trial of the Webalo Mobile Dashboard today, and we think your verdict will be favorable… in less than a day.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT WEBALO

Colombia, July 22, 2009 – EMSER, participated in Connect with the Experts event in Colombia organized by RIM and Blackberry at the Radisson Hotel.

At Emser’s booth, visitors had an opportunity to experience Emser’s rugged, reliable and real time route accounting and tracking solutions. During the show, Sales representatives answered logistics questions with the highlight being demonstrations of AutoTrader and Ftracker software solutions covering the benefits of this products to customers. In addition, a free trial pass for Emser’s latest application e-Survey was provided to visitors.

Since our founding in 1994, Emser has been the leading innovator in the mobile capture of data. Our early products pioneered the concept of automated meter reading and field service applications for electric and water utilities. Early applications focused on the implementation of solutions with portable data collectors that accelerated the capture, viewing and printing of on-site transactionals documents.

Emser also led its growth with cutting-edge in house development tools that simplified the capture of on-site information and seamless integration of the same with backend ERP and CRM systems with the use of dial up, batch transmit ion, WIFI and now with GPRS and other cell phone based telecommunication.

Today ( 2009 ) , EMSER is a solutions provider for robust, expandable, enterprise-class platforms that supports more than 15,000 portable devices at customers worldwide.

Blackberry Connect with the Experts in Colombia

Dear Sirs

Please be aware that I just installed your Blackberry App for Google Voice and the same uninstalled my Facebook interface with my email app .

Before I had facebook pictures and the option to send to my contacts a facebook message directly from my address book . After installing Google Voice I no longer have that option

Any suggestions on what to do ? Shall I try to install Facebook again or will it remove my Google Voice – If I have to choose I’ll stick with you

Besides that – Great application – Congratulations… However – you have not yet replaced my Skype account

I think you should integrate Google Talk with Google Voice for your Business Model of Future Telephony to be 100% successful

Then I might only have one portal and charge all my Int calls through Google Voice – I think that your rates are competitive

Thanks

Ariel Segall

For the first half-hour of the meeting, it was hardly surprising to see a potential client fiddling with his iPhone, said Rowland Hobbs, the chief executive of a marketing firm in Manhattan.

At an hour, it seemed a bit much. And after an hour and a half, Mr. Hobbs and his colleagues wondered what the man could possibly be doing with his phone for the length of a summer blockbuster.

Someone peeked over his shoulder. “He was playing a racing game,” Mr. Hobbs said. “He did ask questions, though, peering occasionally over his iPhone.”

But, Mr. Hobbs added, “we didn’t say anything. We still wanted the business.”

As Web-enabled smartphones have become standard on the belts and in the totes of executives, people in meetings are increasingly caving in to temptation to check e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, even (shhh!) ESPN.com.

But a spirited debate about etiquette has broken out. Traditionalists say the use of BlackBerrys and iPhones in meetings is as gauche as ordering out for pizza. Techno-evangelists insist that to ignore real-time text messages in a need-it-yesterday world is to invite peril.

In Hollywood, both the Creative Artists Agency and United Talent Agency ban BlackBerry use at meetings. Tom Golisano, a billionaire and power broker in New York State politics, said last week that he pushed to remove Malcolm A. Smith as the State Senate majority leader after the senator met with him on budget matters in April and spent the time reading e-mail on his BlackBerry.

The phone use has become routine in the corporate and political worlds — and grating to many. A third of more than 5,300 workers polled in May by Yahoo HotJobs, a career research and job listings Web site, said they frequently checked e-mail in meetings. Nearly 20 percent said they had been castigated for poor manners regarding wireless devices.

Despite resistance, the etiquette debate seems to be tilting in the favor of smartphone use, many executives said. Managing directors do it. Summer associates do it. It spans gender and generation, private and public sectors.

A few years ago, only “the investment banker types” would use BlackBerrys in meetings, said Frank Kneller, the chief executive of a company in Elk Grove Village, Ill., that makes water-treatment systems. “Now it’s everybody.” He said that if he spotted 6 of 10 colleagues tapping away, he knew he had to speed up his presentation.

It is routine for Washington officials to bow heads silently around a conference table — not praying — while others are speaking, said Philippe Reines, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Although BlackBerrys are banned in certain areas of the State Department headquarters for security reasons, their use is epidemic where they are allowed.

“You’ll have half the participants BlackBerrying each other as a submeeting, with a running commentary on the primary meeting,” Mr. Reines said. “BlackBerrys have become like cartoon thought bubbles.”

Some professionals admitted that they occasionally sent mocking commentary about the proceedings, but most insisted that they used smartphones for legitimate reasons: responding to deadline requests, plumbing the Web for data to illuminate an issue under discussion or simply taking notes.

Still, the practice retains the potential to annoy. Joel I. Klein, the New York City schools chancellor, has gained such a reputation for checking his BlackBerry during public meetings that some parents joke that they might as well send him an e-mail message. Few companies have formal policies about smartphone use in meetings, according to Nancy Flynn, the executive director of the ePolicy Institute, a consulting group in Columbus, Ohio. Ms. Flynn tells clients to encourage employees to turn off all devices.

“People mistakenly think that tapping is not as distracting as talking,” she said. “In fact, it can be every bit as much if not more distracting. And it’s pretty insulting to the speaker.”

Still, business can be won or lost, executives say, depending on how responsive you are to an e-mail message. “Clients assume they can get you anytime, anywhere,” said David Brotherton, a media consultant in Seattle. “Consultants who aren’t readily available 24/7 tend to languish.”

Playful electronic bantering can stimulate creativity in meetings, in the view of Josh Rabinowitz, the director of music at Grey Group in New York, an advertising agency. In pitch meetings, Mr. Rabinowitz said, he often traded messages on his Palm Treo — jokes, ideas, questions — with colleagues, “things that you might not say out loud.”

The chatter tends to loosen the proceedings. “It just seems to add to the productive energy,” he said.

But business relationships can be jeopardized. Lori Levine, the founder of Flying Television, a talent-booking agency in Manhattan, said that in an effort to be environmentally sensitive she instructed employees to take notes on BlackBerrys instead of paper during client meetings.

“Then I got a call from a client screaming that our vice president spent an hour on his BlackBerry during a huge meeting,” Ms. Levine recalled. To soothe the client, Ms. Levine read aloud the notes the vice president had taken.

In Dallas, a college student sunk his chance to have an internship at a hedge fund last summer when he pulled out a BlackBerry to look up a fact to help him make a point during his interview, then lingered — momentarily, but perceptibly — to check a text message a friend had sent, said Trevor Hanger, the head of equity trading at the hedge fund, who was helping conduct the interview.

Very few companies have policies on smartphone use in meetings, which leaves it up to employees to feel their way across uncertain terrain.

To Jason Chan, a digital-strategy consultant in Manhattan, different rules apply for in-house meetings (where checking BlackBerrys seems an expression of informal collegiality) and those with clients, where the habit is likely to offend. There is safety in numbers, he added in an e-mail message: “The acceptability of checking devices is proportional to the number of people attending the meeting. The more people there are, the less noticeable your typing will be.”

Beyond practical considerations, there is also the issue of image. In many professional circles, where connections are power, making a show of reaching out to those connections even as co-workers are presenting a spreadsheet presentation seems to have become a kind of workplace boast.

Mr. Brotherton, the consultant, wrote in an e-mail message that it was customary now for professionals to lay BlackBerrys or iPhones on a conference table before a meeting — like gunfighters placing their Colt revolvers on the card tables in a saloon. “It’s a not-so-subtle way of signaling ‘I’m connected. I’m busy. I’m important. And if this meeting doesn’t hold my interest, I’ve got 10 other things I can do instead.’ ”

By MARTIN PEERS

It may be time to put down the BlackBerry.

Even after a selloff Friday, shares of the ubiquitous device maker, Research In Motion, are trading at around 18 times projected fiscal 2010 earnings. That is a little rich for a company whose prospects for red-hot growth may be wearing out.

The company’s fiscal first-quarter results, released late Thursday, showed just how uncertain the future is. The number of net new BlackBerry accounts was down a little from the fourth quarter. And 80% of the additions came on the consumer side, up from 70% in the fourth quarter. Consumers now account for more than half of BlackBerry customers.

That is a mixed blessing. BlackBerry can’t afford to be solely a business device, particularly as the consumer market for smartphones takes off. But whereas corporate users appreciate BlackBerry for the efficiency and security of its email, consumers are more responsive to the latest fashion and to price.

An array of new smartphones hitting the market from Apple, Palm and others, arguably better at Web browsing than the BlackBerry, suggests likely erosion of RIM’s U.S. smartphone market share, which IDC estimates was 55% in the first quarter.

Also at issue is how much RIM needs to spend to maintain that market share. Last fiscal year, RIM’s capital spending more than doubled to $834 million. When increased spending on intellectual property of $688 million is taken into account, RIM generated no free cash flow. Capex rose again in the first quarter, although free cash flow was positive.

RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie says he doesn’t “fret” about competition. But at current valuations, investors may want to.

Write to Martin Peers at martin.peers@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page B10