Hello -

I disagree (even though your rant is valid). The RIM phones are more rugged that you give them credit for. I also disagree on price. I was under the impression that an unsubsidized BlackBerry was more north of $550-650 USD. To put this in comparison the cheap freebie phones (under $50 subsidized) are often $230-300 USD when purchased unsubsidized. I also understant many of the high-end HTC devices are north of $800-1100 unsubsidized. So RIM is sort of in the middle of the two extremes. RIM was even be a $100 USD or so less (unsubsidized) than competing smart phones /PDAs (Apple iPhone, Google Andriod-based phones, Palm Pre, various Windows Mobile smart phones, Treos, Nokia Symbian-based phones, etc). Where I believe your rant to be valid, is yes, compared with the early days (RIM 6XXX series, RIM 7230/7290 series, RIM 7100 series, RIM 7510/7520 series) the later devices - 8700/8707, 8100 series, 8300 series, 9000 Bold - are NOT Panzer tanks. But by every other criteron - memory, cpu, functionality, performance, multimedia support, quality of the LCD display, etc - the later devices are better than the earlier devices. I do believe the build quality of the new devices (8700/8100 and later) to be sufficient for their intended uses. I don't expect any electronic device to survive a direct fall onto concrete or a pool of water. Although many of the early Blackberrys did and that was well documented here and elsewhere.

Aaron