My Blackberry Idea

For a while now, my love for smartphones has been quite pronounced. However, after spending a weekend with various BlackBerry devices (keeping myself out of the “BlackBerries” vs. “BlackBerrys” debate for now), I have realized just how useful and thoughtful those smartphones are. So I came up with an idea which could potentially (but doesn’t really) get me a BlackBerry and only spend pocket money on the device itself.

To put things in to perspective, my current cell phone is serviced by Boost Mobile’s pay-as-you-go plan, which is just about the most I can afford. Keeping that in mind, it would be outrageously expensive and almost impossible for me to have my own voice plan from Sprint and have the BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service, which includes email and, depending on the price level, unlimited Web access), for two simple reasons:

• I am not of age to sign contracts (my age < 18)
• I don’t have a consistent source of income (the largest sum of money I ever made was from a summer job)
• I don’t have access to nearly enough money (it’s all in the bank, in my savings account nonetheless - and I don’t even have a checking account yet!)

Aside: Please don’t leave comments saying that when I grow up I’ll be able to enjoy this stuff. I get enough of those speeches at home from my parents.

Continuing, as I humored about earlier, my uncle got a BlackBerry 8300 World Edition from Sprint a short while ago. Realizing that I can’t afford to pay for my own voice plan from Sprint (or sign the necessary contract yet), I figured I could do what my uncle did for his BlackBerry: Buy my own BlackBerry device, and add another line and another BIS account to their family plan. In total, the deal would cost me about $50 a month, plus taxes and fees, which comes out at slightly more than $600 a year (more than a third of my earnings from last summer, which I plan on spending on something - I’d like it to be service for a BlackBerry). And I’d probably be keeping my Boost Mobile phone, still paying my $20 plus sales tax (no other taxes or fees though, since it’s prepaid service) every 90 days.

Now as any person would expect, my dad says that this would be too much of an investment, with very little ROI. He also said that I shouldn’t go digging into my savings account, which is my money for life. Being an irrational teenager, and one from a modern era at that, I highly disagree. But when it comes to money, I almost never get my way.

Getting a BlackBerry is a nice, but unfortunately, expensive idea. I really don’t have a business justification for it. But who said being cool (and connected) wasn’t going to cost me? For now, a smartphone is just a figment of my imagination, but I sure hope it doesn’t stay that way for long.

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