Life without a BlackBerry

Chances are if you are a BlackBerry user like me, you have been frustrated over not being able to send or receive e-mail over the last day or two.

The reason being, as you probably know by now, is that Research In Motion, the manufacturer of the ubiquitous BlackBerry, informed the more than 70 million BlackBerry users that the company is experiencing a severe outage, due to what it said is a “problem on a hardware failure in its network infrastructure,” according to a Wall Street Journal report. Specific details on the roots of the outage remain scant.

Given how closely attached smart phone users are to their devices, it is very hard for most BlackBerry users to fathom life without a truly functioning one for that amount of time (I still had Web access and could make phone calls with mine, plus I work out of my home so it was not as cumbersome for me as it likely was for many others).

But at the end of the day, having access to vital information is key and is what makes BlackBerry’s (and other smart phones) so vital for their millions of users. And this is where I am sure the frustration over the last few days has really kicked in for BlackBerry users.

I know many shippers, carriers, and logistics service providers are constantly on the road and also in constant contact with their colleagues and customers. Well, guess what? If they were traveling during this outage, which is still occurring, things quickly got harder and more demanding by not being able to quickly communicate via e-mail.

It was not a natural disaster, which obviously has more urgent or threatening issues, but it most certainly can be viewed as a business disaster, when it comes to tracking shipments, looking over a contract, or talking shop or strategy with your team.

After all, it was not that long ago when none of us even knew what a smart phone was. And it truly feels longer ago than it was, but I digress.

Until Research In Motion officially fixes this situation, all of us BlackBerry users will likely be wondering when this thing will be over and when can we get back to life as we know it with a fully functioning BlackBerry.

Hopefully your daily business and supply chain operations were not severely impacted by this situation. If they were, please feel free to share your experience with Newsroom Notes.