> and didn't need to be reset as often as Windows Mobile ... I do remember the Blackberry taking a full two minutes to start up from a cold
That was true of Windows phones too, even the highish-end device I had for a fair while.
> Once other phones started handling email just as well
It wasn't that other devices did basic email less well, it was that they didn't make the same security claims. Once those security claims were in doubt (rightly or wrongly) other devices looked a lot less different in that regard so other factors became key to sales and the BB proposition was not as competitive in those areas. Once the "all the corporates use BB, so all the corporates use BB" bubble had broken, BB never recovered the mindshare they once had.
IIRC secure email was their USP to corporates.
> and didn't need to be reset as often as Windows Mobile ... I do remember the Blackberry taking a full two minutes to start up from a cold
That was true of Windows phones too, even the highish-end device I had for a fair while.
> Once other phones started handling email just as well
It wasn't that other devices did basic email less well, it was that they didn't make the same security claims. Once those security claims were in doubt (rightly or wrongly) other devices looked a lot less different in that regard so other factors became key to sales and the BB proposition was not as competitive in those areas. Once the "all the corporates use BB, so all the corporates use BB" bubble had broken, BB never recovered the mindshare they once had.