Over the past few months, a lot of my BlackBerry-toting friends have picked up iPhones. OK, they've "seen the light".
However, they actually still hang on to their BlackBerry as a second line. And some of them aren't business users, i.e. the BB is paid for by their company. So, they are actually paying for two phones, and incurring a rather high telecommunications cost because of it.
I've also seen BB/Droid users and iOS/Droid users. I have a Droid but it is a backup phone that is inactive.
Now, the excuse usually is either "BBM" or the messaging suite.
BBM is a ghost town. It's the MySpace of proprietary messaging systems. It enjoys some notoriety in a corporate environment, but it is being superseded by apps like WhatsApp, Kik, and Apple's own Messaging system. As for RIM's secure messaging suite, that's the only feature I could maybe give someone credit for hanging on to their BB. But is having a secure messaging handheld worth the extra $60-$100 a month? Both iOS and Droid can connect to secure email systems, as well.
My only real "WTF" about this is that one is carrying two devices. My pockets are full already. I did the two-device thing for a bit and it wasn't bad, since it was so long ago that I had a Nokia 5310 (it could fit in the change pocket of my jeans and was about the weight of three sticks of gum), and I was experimenting with a RIM handheld (yes, I did have a BB, but it was issued to me by Venue Driver, since at the time BB support kinda mattered) for mobile data. So I kind of had one and a half phones. But two devices nonetheless, and it was a pain to keep track of them. I got wasted and lost the BB actually. I had to pay for it, waa.
What say you?