I've had my Blackberry 8700c for about 15 months now. Cingular has an upgrade model out now, the 8800. The phone functionally does nothing more than the 8700c...it's just slimmer, and I would be the first kid on my block to have one. I said I would keep this phone for two years, to finally take advantage of the discount you are supposed to get for a phone upgrade at the 2 year point. What is really killing me about making the decision is that I do not have any choices, and that is what is driving me nuts.

 I can not have a camera phone within my work building, just as I can't at probably well over half of the facilities I have to go into to work at when I'm on travel. This eliminates every phone carried by Cingular that uses the Windows Mobile OS, which would be my preferred choice if there was one available. As far as I can tell, it eliminates almost every Windows Mobile device on the market, as well as the Treo. The Palm OS device would be my fallback if that was a viable option.

 What I do not understand is the huge chunk of market that cell phone manufacturers are cutting themselves out of by not offering a competitor to the Blackberry that does not have a camera. Almost all US Department of Defense facilities, organizations, and contractors have some restriction to camera enabled devices. There is a reason why the Blackberry is the Smart Phone of choice for the US Government. While I've become accustomed to the Blackberry interface and design, it would certainly not be the device I would carry with me if there was a Windows Mobile or Palm OS device I could take into my work offices. I have felt like this particular technology has been foisted upon me, although it is me that insists on having a device that can both receive and transmit full email with a full QWERTY keyboard. 

The only option to a Blackberry right now, based on the camera restriction, are the Nokia smartphones. However, I have not liked the feel of the keyboard, the 9000-series Nokia's are not available in the US, or at least not at Cingular, and the one I did try out did not have a comfortable feel to the keyboard. Add to that my lack of familiarity and reservations on moving to the Symbian OS that the Nokia phones use.

 So, for the time being, I have elected to hold off on the upgrade of my 8700c, despite the fact that it has taken a beating over the last 15 months of travel. Over the next 7 or 8 months before I plan on actually doing an upgrade, I'll be keeping a closer eye on the market and examining what options are out there for my business smartphone. I really hope that in that time, Microsoft and their smartphone manufacturing partners, and Palm, as well, have epiphanies that lead them to make some option devices without cameras.