RIM's BlackBerry Is An Embarrassment

Quick, Hide the BlackBerry, It’s Too Uncool reads the title of a recently published NY Times article about the troubled RIM (Research In Motion). It used to be the BlackBerry was a sign of elite status in the work force and teenagers who had them proudly flaunted them and its features such as BBM (BlackBerry Messenger). That’s not the case anymore.

And it’s not just us tech guys who think the BlackBerry is an embarrassment. No, not at all. Check out a few of my favorite excerpts from the article.

“I’m ashamed of it,” said Ms. Crosby, a Los Angeles sales representative who said she had stopped pulling out her BlackBerry at cocktail parties and conferences. In meetings, she says she hides her BlackBerry beneath her iPad for fear clients will see it and judge her.

Victoria Gossage, a 28-year-old hedge fund marketer, said she recently attended a work retreat at Piping Rock Club, an upscale country club in Locust Valley, N.Y., and asked the concierge for a phone charger. “First he said, ‘Sure.’ Then he saw my phone and — in this disgusted tone — said, ‘Oh no, no, not for that.’ ”

“You get used to that kind of rejection,” she said.

“BlackBerry users are like Myspace users,” sneers Craig Robert Smith, a Los Angeles musician. “They probably still chat on AOL Instant Messenger.”

Ouch.

For a company that once reigned supreme in the smartphone market, they sure have fallen pretty far.

What do you think of the negative connotations associated with RIM?