Still a Blackberry Affair
I may have noted this before in a previous blog post, but I just noticed the same phenomenon again: It sometimes seems like Canadians are still mainly a Blackberry affair. That is, of the mobile phone flavour.
For the past four months I have been in an extended onsite role for one of our customers. That is, I've been living away from home providing contract engineering help. As part of the perks of living away from home for work purposes, I have an allowance of air travel that I can take each month. So I've been flying between North Carolina and Buffalo on average twice a month. That equates to around eight flight segments a month.
It's always a given that once the plane touches down and begins taxiing to the gate that you see and hear everyone around you power up their mobile phones.
Having been living in the US for nearly a year now, it's become common place for me to see a wide-variety of Android-powered smartphones being toted around by mostly everyone. From the super techno-geekish to the fashion-conscious "cool guy" to the crisp business person.
The other week due to a massive US Airways system-wide computer outage, I missed a connecting flight in Charlotte enroute to Buffalo. However, the US Airways staff were kind enough (obligated enough?) to rebook me on an alternative flight, which instead of landing in Buffalo now flew me directly to Toronto. Nice!
Finally I was on my way back home to Toronto for the weekend. And soon enough we touched down in the familiar and comfortable Lester B. Pearson International Airport. And right on cue, people around me started pulling out and powering on their phones.
And to my surprise, EVERYONE around me pulled out a Blackberry. Where did the Android phones go?
Oh that's right, I was back in Canada.
Buy a Blackberry, and you can feel good knowing that a portion of the proceeds will go towards humble Waterloo engineering co-op students providing them with food, shelter, textbooks and Engineering C & D coffee and beef/chicken patties.
2 comments
Have you noticed a similar trend like that in the West Coast? I don't think it's as prevalent; I see more iPhones and the like, and those that tote BlackBerrys tend to be business professionals.Also, were you flying on a business flight (non-weekend, more business folks than tourists)?
I haven't flown to the west coast recently or frequently for that matter, so I'm not too sure. The flight I took was a Friday night flight - I had taken many similar flights before but to US destinations. The one thing that I do notice though is that I don't know anyone in the US who uses a Blackberry as a personal phone or by choice. However, I know many people in Canada who use a Blackberry by personal choice. The attitude towards smartphone in the US seems quite different compared to Canada, and even the rest of the world. 
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