To extend from Jeff Brandt’s Soapbox on Android vs. iPhone, the physicians and healthcare business professionals who are still thumbing away on their BlackBerries are increasingly jumping ship. RIM’s ‘catch-up’, the Torch 9800, will be in US stores 12 August, a hybrid combining a touch screen with the traditional (now slide out) keypad. New features/upgrades all sound in the right direction–but who made the on-the-face-of-it boneheaded marketing decision to exclusively go with AT&T (iPhone’s home) rather than through greater coverage Verizon (Android territory)? And since Verizon Wireless is one of the lead players in healthcare network services, a BlackBerry marketer but crossing many of their health applications over to Android…not a smooth move. First looks before the tech blogs crack it open: Jeremy Olshan, NY Post; Amber Sutherland, ‘The Torch won’t set the world on fire.’ Wall Street Journal
[Update 5 August: ZDNet’s Jason Perlow analyzes BlackBerry’s eroding ‘beachhead’ in large enterprise settings, especially those which need top security–as healthcare does.]