The blackberry IM popularly known as "pinging" has become popular among business class people as well as students in both secondary and universities. In fact this trend among student is increasing like wild fire and for me it's annoying the way people go about using their blackberries to ping even in a dark night club. Okay have being in situations where by am meeting someone for the first time and instead of asking for my phone number they were like "whats your pin?". Crazy isit? ... I also found out that the black berry IM is quite expensive to run, as a typical Nigerian network charges N5000 a month that is N60000/ $461.54 per year.
On the other hand Ovi chat from the stables of Nokia, Finland, has being introduced by Nokia to most of their mobile phones to enable Nokia to Nokia chat services. Unlike the BB chat, Nokia Ovi chat does not need any special subscription, all you need to do is to log into the application from your mobile device and you are all set up to start charting as long as you have your normal credit loaded. For me I use Ovi and all I do is to subscribe for a bundle with my network provider which cost me about N1500 per month that is N18000/$138.5 per year.
Well am not criticizing any of the chat applications all just trying to enlightening people on the mobile IM's available to pick from.
Happy TRENDING readers........ I hope you all TREND back here again.
2 comments:
At least you have dissected this serious issue from an 'Omo Naija' standpoint - the cost. You have forgotten the cost of acquiring the Blackberry phones themselves - a body needs at least 45 thousand naira to get a one, whereas a nokia phone as cheap as 12 thousand naira can have Ovi Chat on it pre-installed [or even downloaded if not there].
Add that to the cost of maintenance of the ever-spoiling trackballs and trackpads and other whatnots - compared to the Nokia phone who's already built to be rugged and to stand the test of time and you will get my meaning.
Personally I dont even use a network bundle for my Ovi chat - I just chat! And without calls/sms, 100 naira lasts for more than 3 days! Imagine that! That's 200 naira in a week, and 9600 naira in a yr! And that is WITHOUT a data bundle from my network o!
On a final note - I know that even without the cost advantage, Nokia phones generally last longer and are more durable on the long run.
And the Blackberry craze will soon wear out, as did the Sony Ericsson one some years back.
Good post!
It's true about the blackberry craze ending, but something else will also evolve thereafter creating another means of causing the users to spend more money just to gain cheap access to chatting with each other.
People don't have time to sit and calculate hw much they spend on the BB IM, so they blindly use it. While some who have the blackberry don't even have enough money to subscribe to the monthly plan.
Japelandmore.
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