Krakow: No Excuse for Broken BlackBerries

They just smiled. Then they opened a cabinet with their collection of broken BlackBerries. Several had broken track balls, some had connection problems, and others had various assorted ills. They told me that their experience with recent BlackBerries is that the track ball fails within six months. At that point they contact the cellular company (in our case, usually Verizon (VZ Quote)) and get a new phone. They told me not to panic. "It happens all the time."

That's not what I wanted to hear. I'm careful with my phones, and I test a lot of them. I keep my Blackberry in its holster when not in use. How could the inner works get gummed-up in only six months?

So, I searched the BlackBerry Web site to see if they could guide me back to cellular nirvana. On the support page, the first entry in the "Recently Added To Support" column was titled: "BlackBerry smartphone trackball fails to roll in a particular direction."

They say the problem is "debris lodged in the trackball." Their solution was simple:

"The trackball user interface found on certain BlackBerry smartphones is similar to the trackball used in a mouse in conjunction with a desktop computer. In the event debris comes in contact with the trackball and affects the usability of the BlackBerry smartphone, rapidly roll the trackball up, down, left, or right to potentially correct the problem. If rapidly rolling the trackball does not correct the problem, please contact your wireless service provider for support options.

Note: Do not attempt to repair the BlackBerry smartphone. Your BlackBerry smartphone may only be repaired by persons authorized by Research In Motion. Any attempt to repair the BlackBerry smartphone may invalidate any warranty applicable to your BlackBerry smartphone."

Sorry, RIM but that's just not true. Yes, trackballs are susceptible to dirt and grit clogging up the mechanism. But, any and every other trackball I've ever used has a way to open it up and clean both the ball and the rollers. BlackBerries don't.

So, now I'll contact T-Mobile and discuss the next step. Or maybe I won't. I might just decide I'm going to depend on to the next test phone and send this broken one back. I'm currently receiving my corporate email on my Apple (AAPL Quote) iPhone 3G -- not that it's a perfect device. Despite the constant, and increasingly annoying, software updates from Apple, which include improving power management, this near-perfect smartphone interface makes it easy for me to stop using my Blackberry.