Weaning my wife off her Blackberry addiction has been a very impossible task. Apparently, all my rants have come to nothing. Read my rants here.

Here in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, Blackberry addiction is still quite rife. Most go to extreme lengths to get one of these devices, preferrably the flagship models.

Personally, i have very little love for that brand and all it stands for. My reasons are summarized below;

– OVER PRICED PHONES!!! Yes, the caps was intentional. Would gladly choose the N35,000 Tecno Phantom A+ Android phone over the now N70,000 Blackberry Z10
– Mostly boring designs and limited screen estate. Okay, the Z10 is an exception.
– Limited apps. Like they say, the app makes the phone. Right? Unfortunately, even the Z10 and other new offerings can not compensate for this.
– Very limited free apps. Yeah, for cheap skates like me!
– Perhaps most importantly, its addictiveness

Unfortunately, my “educated” analysis usually fall on deaf ears. Most did not care, so long as they have their chat services. In Nigeria, Blackberry is synonymous with its chat services, the BBM. Remove the BBM from Blackberry and what do you have?

Well, it was very good music to my ears when i heard that BBM was going to be made cross platform, meaning that the BBM would now be available on Android and Apple Phones. Definitely a welcome development for we consumers, though not sure how it would impact on Blackberry. I can however hazard a guess, I foresee them being transformed from a mobile phone manufacturer to a messaging company, in the ranks of Whatsapp and the likes.

Armed with this information, i approached my wife again in a bid to woo her over. On one knee, i proposed to her … “Darling, please come over to android”. Guess what? She said yes! yes!! yes!!!

Finally! Got her off the sinking Blackberry ship.

Blackberry said soon, the app would be available on Android. Beta tests was even conducted with a select few last week. But how soon, nobody knows. Before end of summer, is always the vague response.

Guess we are in for a long wait. I pray she does not change her mind before then.