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Another Case Where RIM Does Not Really Care To Support Macs…

by Ronen Halevy on Jun 10th, 2009 at 11:00 am EST
9 Comments »
 

appleberry RIM has really given Mac users the short straw for the last few years. They refuse to support Desktop Manager until this day and finally gave in slightly by offering PocketMac for free which is a pitiful alternative.

RIM has decided to take things a step further in a recent knowledge base article titled:

Unable to configure the BlackBerry Desktop Manager for synchronization on an Apple Macintosh computer running a Windows operating system

I copied the details below but RIM more or less states that BlackBerry Desktop Manager is not supported on Apple Macintosh computers running Windows even in Bootcamp. I know this is ridiculous since I upgrade my own device using Bootcamp on my Macbook aluminum. I guess RIM can support every flavor of Windows computer OTHER than a Mac running Windows…

Overview

  • You are unable to configure the BlackBerry Desktop Manager for synchronization on an Apple Macintosh computer running a Windows operating system.

Cause

  • The BlackBerry Desktop Manager is not supported on Apple Macintosh computers running a Windows operating system.

Resolution

  • Use PocketMac for BlackBerry smartphones to synchronize the BlackBerry smartphone user data with Apple Macintosh applications on the computer. For information about PocketMac for BlackBerry smartphones, see KB04827. To download and install PocketMac for BlackBerry smartphones, visit www.blackberry.com.
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9 Comments to “Another Case Where RIM Does Not Really Care To Support Macs…”

  1. Posted by: Drew
    June 10, 2009 at 11:24 am EST

    Has to be an isolated issue and it would be false they say DM is NOT supported in Windows through Boot Camp because I update, backup, install BlackBerry’s throughout the family whether it be 83xx’s, 8830, Bold’s and Storms without any flaws.

  2. Posted by: Andrew
    June 10, 2009 at 11:52 am EST

    RIM has exactly 1 year to keep me as a loyal customer, as that is when my Windows 7 beta runs out on my Mac – I am never going to buy Windows just to run a Blackberry Desktop Manager, which is the only thing I use Windows for now.

    At that point, if RIM still hasn’t managed to get its head out its collective ass and given me a proper Mac DM – I will switch (begrudgingly) to an iPhone.

    The only caveat would be if RIM were to obviate the need for a Desktop Manger altogether, which would be fantastic – but I doubt they have the fore vision to do it.

    Why they ignore Mac users is beyond me, it makes no business sense whatsoever. It is a business strategy as warped as if Apple were to say you need to buy a Mac to use an iPhone.

  3. Posted by: b1gg134
    June 10, 2009 at 12:41 pm EST

    I see this all the time, “Rim HAS to start supporting OS X”; the question is why do they have to?

    Apple has maybe 11% market share, let’s say 25% of those actually use a blackberry (and I would think that I am being very generous saying 25%) so you all are saying that Rim HAS to spend research and development money for that small percentage of users.

    It is good business sense to not spend money on 3% especially when that 3% is more like 1% because even those 3% realize that they are using an OS that no one cares about and they have to dual boot Windows to be productive.

    Using the iphone analogy is retarded because if apple said only mac users could use the iphone than they would sell to only 11% of the market…. even apple isn’t that stupid.

    Apple is not gaining much ground, last I heard, sales have been down for them.

    Disclaimer: I use a Mac laptop at work… of course I do run Vista in a virtual machine on it so I can be productive.

  4. Posted by: Andrew
    June 10, 2009 at 1:07 pm EST

    bigg134 – you make some valid points

    The marginal cost to support Mac, would be trivial to RIM’s bottom line.. what would it cost? maybe 2-3 programmers for a Mac team? This is so insignificant in the grand scheme of things it can’t be explained rationally.

    RIM recently sold there 50M BB which took them 10 years – Apple is projected to do 45M units next year alone in iPhone sales.

    Your looking at the numbers backwards. The important stat is RIM’s user base is 11% Mac users and increasing. Can they afford to lose that to Apple?

    • Posted by: b1gg134
      June 10, 2009 at 1:36 pm EST

      To be honest I cannot really disagree with you. I did think about it and I bet they spent more time and money trying to get the itune sync app working. And to me that was totally wasted money as drag and drop works great for that.

  5. Posted by: Xorphan
    June 10, 2009 at 2:00 pm EST

    This issue with DM not working on a MAC with windows installed in bogus,
    I’m using it right now and have been using it ever since I got my IMac a year ago.

    I’ve run on vista until recently I’ve upgraded to windows 7

    I can post photo’s if you like.

  6. Posted by: Leaving RIM
    June 10, 2009 at 7:46 pm EST

    I’m in the same boat as Andrew, just a year ahead of the game. When the iPhone 3G came out last year, I gave RIM one year to get it together before I bolted. That year is up, so when the new iPhone comes out in a few weeks, I almost surely will jump ship. It is sad as I love my Blackberry, but enough is enough. Five years of deleted contacts, duplicated calendar entries, and having to hunt down a Windows box to update/backup has left me over it.

    B1gg124 is right on the money, too. The fact that they put out a media sync for Mac last year, but no sign of a desktop manager, is criminally insane. Transferring media is the one thing that always worked right, because it was a simple case of drag & drop. So RIM puts out an app that does something a blind monkey can do without ANY app, and ignores the functionality that really makes a smartphone worth having. Mind-boggling stupid.

  7. Posted by: Xorphan
    June 10, 2009 at 7:55 pm EST

    This info regarding the use of desktop manager on a Mac PC in incorrect, I’ve been running Desktop manager
    version 4.7.0.37 for a long time without issue on my 7 month old Imac. running windows vista, until recently I upgraded to windows 7 and still have no problem…

    So I’m not sure if a new update pending may break compatibility or not, but for now it’s sweet…

    Running on OS X is a problem but it is what it is.

  8. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    June 10, 2009 at 9:37 pm EST

    I totally agree that it does work on a mac running windows. I just find it funny that rim will not support it :)
    They really just don’t seem to care. They are still stuck in a corporate mindset