Disgruntled BlackBerry owners are planning to ditch their BlackBerrys in droves. Surveys show nearly two thirds of customers could move to Android or the iPhone after a week without Internet, email and BlackBerry Messenger.
Only 32 per cent of 4,000 BlackBerry owners polled by Kelkoo stood by their troubled phone. The rest want to jump ship when their contract comes up, if not sooner.
BlackBerrys are synonymous with serious business, and one in five business users reckon they lost potential new business when the smart phone on their belt holster turned into an expensive ornament. Nine per cent of people surveyed are stuck working over the weekend to catch up, but 16 per cent said they weren’t affected at all.
Half of those polled are expecting compensation, and the majority were unhappy with the lack of communication from BlackBerry makers Research in Motion about the problems.
It’s good news for Google, as there’s a wide range of Android phones just waiting to be discovered by BlackBerry defectors. Not so good for Apple, however — in a separate survey by PriceRunner, only 2 per cent of potential defectors were lusting after an iPhone, while far more said Apple’s smart phone is too expensive.
How badly were you affected by the BlackBerry outage? Did you lose business, and will you be working over the weekend? Will you be sticking with BlackBerry, or making a change? Tell us which phone you’d choose over BlackBerry in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.