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Blackberry Software For Mac Coming In September

Posted by: Arik Hesseldahl on July 20, 2009

As much as I love my Mac and most products that come out of Apple, my personal wireless phone has been not an iPhone but a Blackberry for about four years. The iPhone’s great and all, extraordinary even, but for me, email is the most important thing, even more important than voice calling. And in my humble opinion, the optimal email experience includes a physical keyboard.

I’ve owned no fewer than five Blackberry devices, going all the way back to the beginning with the 850/950 generation, and so I guess having that thumb-operated keyboard is a hard habit to break. When I type on an iPhone, I tend to hold the device in my left hand, and then type with one finger on my right hand. That slows me down, and so I’ve not embraced the iPhone as my primary go-everywhere mobile device.

But the Blackberry has been a Windows-centric device from the beginning. My second Blackberry was a 957 and synced with the Windows desktop that my prior employer required me to use. It didn’t speak Mac at all. Even those third-party programs like Missing Sync and PocketMac didn’t fill the void very well. They were, in my experience, always buggy and confusing to use.

As I moved away from using Windows, even at work I use a Mac now, but retained my Blackberry, I moved away from needing to sync the device with the desktop entirely. It was Google, oddly enough, that came to my aid. I use GMail for my personal email, and a Blackberry syncs nicely with GMail using IMAP. Then Google Sync for Blackberry made it possible to keep my Blackberry calendar and Google Calendar in perfect sync, while also synchronizing the contacts on my phone with those in my GMail account, which I happened to sync with Address Book on my Mac by exporting my contacts to the desktop via Bluetooth. I even send pictures from my Blackberry to my Mac via Bluetooth.

But now, the Blackberry officially speaks Mac. Research In Motion says today in a blog post say it will release its first official Blackberry Desktop Software for Mac in September.

Among other things — and in light of last week’s events surrounding the Palm Pre this is very interesting — it will sync your iTunes playlists in addition to your notes, calendar and tasks. I don’t really think of my Blackberry as a music or media device, and so am only marginally interested in the iTunes Sync, but I’ll certainly try it. Additionally, and this is key for me, it will upgrade your Blackberry OS when new versions become available. It will also back up the data from your Blackberry.

Overall I’m glad Research In Motion has seen the light on the Mac. It will make the Blackberry more competitive versus the iPhone in certain situations and among certain users, and as we all know, competition is good. Some companies issue Blackberry devices to their employees and simply don’t support the iPhone, for instance. And if you’re one of those people, and you happen to use a Mac at home, this will come in very handy. Let me know what you think. Leave a comment below, or click the Google Voice widget to the upper right of this post and leave a voice comment from your own iPhone or Blackberry as the case may be.


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Reader Comments

ben london

July 21, 2009 05:31 AM

this would be a killer move for blackberry I want to keep my blackberry because it has a removable battery, it's great for those conferences. The iphone's battery on the other hand has an awful battery life and is non-removable.

dorobou

July 21, 2009 06:44 AM

I've only started using the 3G iphone beginning of this year, and I have to say it's doesn't live up to its hype, though I must say that I'm definitely not one of those avid users. It is stylish, snazzy, cool to have, but not as functional as a blackberry is, in my opinion. With the download of the new OS for the old iphone 3G, I found the OS to have become slower, less responsive, and just buggier overall. Overall, I'm not impressed. What happens to my library if my current mac dies? or if I buy a brand new Mac? These are some of my questions...

For someone like myself, who move from country to country, every couple of year or so, the ITune will definite not satisfy your need for international downloads. In terms of library, it's great, but in terms of functionality, it's less than desirable. I can't download anything from other countries once I'm registered with one country...

bdf79187

July 21, 2009 08:12 AM

Any news from Blackberry as to whether it will be possible to use the Apple apps (i.e. Address Book and iCal) and export the information to Blackberry Desktop, as I do like the interface for those two apps. I've been using Address Book/iCal since I converted to a Mac from Windows about 7 years ago and really prefer them to any other address book and calendar applications that I've used. Plus I have 2 computers (an iMac and a MacBook Pro) and I use my .mac/mobileme account to keep them both in sync, again using Address Book and iCal.

Definitely makes Blackberry more competitive with us Mac users. I agree, the iPhone is a very cool piece of technology, but when it comes to user functionality, Blackberry is the way to go.

Paul Smith

July 21, 2009 08:31 AM

Thanks for great post about Blackberry Software For Mac Coming In September

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Robert Francis

July 21, 2009 09:55 AM

My only question is: What took you so long, RIM???

Seriously, I really wonder sometimes about top management. For example, I was a loyal Blackberry user until recently switching to the IPHONE because I was tired of RIM not supporting the APPLE platform. They have probably lost a customer for life.

Robert Francis

July 21, 2009 09:55 AM

My only question is: What took you so long, RIM???

Seriously, I really wonder sometimes about top management. For example, I was a loyal Blackberry user until recently switching to the IPHONE because I was tired of RIM not supporting the APPLE platform. They have probably lost a customer for life.

Steve

July 21, 2009 10:37 AM

RIMM: Keep up the good work. Next, get software for Linux.

Simon

July 21, 2009 11:17 AM

I have used Macs for over 20 years, currently own 5 Mac computers but I have never abandoned my Blackberry for an iPhone...

Brian

July 21, 2009 01:56 PM

How far Mac has come. I believe this was too little too late from RIM. In 2000 I was searching high and low for a Mac-BBerry interface. I found MissingSync, but agree with the author that it was too buggy and lacked that Mac simplicity/elegance. RIM could have put the iPhone on a difficult playing field nearly a decade before the iPhone came to market but they always suggested there wasn't a market for Mac/BlackBerry as the Apple crowd was too small. Now they cede market share to Apple quarterly and I fear the pain is just beginning for them. We'll see, but I contend this was easily mitigated with a little foresight and effort on the part of RIM.

Bob

July 24, 2009 08:29 AM

Like most of you, I am a Mac-BB user. I've used Missing Sync software to sync the two and have not been happy. The latest version, 2.X, is better, but still not totally reliable. And installing/upgrading Missing Sync products is a real pain. It was so bad that I considered buying an iPhone and giving up on the BlackBery.

But I will install RIM's new product as soon as I can get it.

Joe

August 18, 2009 07:35 AM

Like everyone else, I'm delighted about this. Only the iPhone's lack of an unlimited tariff abroad stopped me switching - but now I'll wait for this new software.

M.

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A blog on the daily doings of Apple and the many companies in its orbit, with insight and analysis by two longtime Apple-watchers BusinessWeek Senior Writer Peter Burrows and BusinessWeek.com Senior Technology Writer Arik Hesseldahl.

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