[richardsbd]

We've had 50+ BB7290s in use for nearly two years now, and the exec office is asking what the generally expected life expectancy is on these devices.

I haven't been able to find anything here using Search.

I do know they are EOL as far as Cingular is concerned - no longer available and not repairable when broken.

Does anyone know of a published life expectancy from RIM or any carrier?

TIA!

[headtailgrep]

I doubt it.... why not judge for yourself? How many have failed in the last 6 months? 1 year? is the rate increasing?

These devices are cheap, and plentiful on the resale market. Just buy a stash of backup devices if that is your worry..

quite frankly, the pace RIM technology evolvs, i'm suprised you haven't upgraded them yet. New devices render these obsolete quite quickly.

[tcora]

Wirelessly posted (7290: BlackBerry7290/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/101)

Mine is about the same age. I keep trying to break it so I can get a new one (I have never liked how the phone works), but to no avail. If it's anything like my old 957, it will probably last forever!

[Mark Stone]

New devices render these obsolete quite quickly.

Relatively speaking. If you think about multimedia, screen and sound quality, amount of memory, and look&feel, yes you are correct: but if you consider useability (email push, PIM applications, phone, tasks, memo pad, etc.) they are still quite caught up. The newer BBs are "newer" -- but not necessarily more useful.

[i robot]

i replaced my 7290 with a curve. But my 7290 still lives. I cant kill it

[feerie]

My 7290.
Dropped on concrete - at least 20 times.
Got wet in rain once.
Dead.
Dried it. did not work.
saw the red LED while trying to charge the battery.
managed to reinstall the firmware since the PC recognized it. (lucky)
Works fine since then.
Used it for almost 3 yrs. upgraded firmware 3 times. using V4.1.0.377

[theBorg]

Life expectancy? Years and years.

Gadget lust is more likely to drive an upgrade than a failing device. This isn't Sony-Ericsson.