What is the monthly service fee for a blackberry?

[stella]

It is like a palm pilot/email/phone all rolled into one. I want to get dh one for Christmas, but first I want to know what kind of financial commitment this is. It was on Oprah's favorite things list and I know he would love it! It would be a combo Christmas/anniversary gift. Does anyone have such a device?

[egoldber]

My DH has one, but work pays for it, so I'll have to ask him when he gets home. But he does not use the cell phone part of it, just the e-mail and calendar portions.

If you DH is the type to get heavily into gadgets and is the type to constantly check his e-mail, then think long and hard about it. I find it REALLY annoying and it beeps constantly. I have to ask him to turn it off on weekends or when we're trying to have a conversation! But my DH gets a LOT of e-mail (easily more than a hundred messages a day, and I don't mean spam) so our scenario may not be typical.

Edited to add: DH says the unit was $300 and his monthly plan is $35 per month. That's not including a cell phone portion, which would be the going rate for whatever cell phone plans are in your area.

HTH,

[khakismom]

Many cellular phone companies have these models. Sprint has a couple. Go to this page and check out the bottom 5 phones:

http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/PhonesAccessories/AllPhones.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1479317&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_SCID=ECOMM&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_PCode=None&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_cartState=group&bmUID=1071089077128

You pay for the unit. Monthly you pay for your minutes (anywhere from $35 to $115) and a data plan (an extra $15 per month, or free with plans over $100). This covers email and phone minutes and the unit has the palm built-in. I have one of these phones and love it! :)

[NancyJ_redo]

I have a blackberry but my company pays the fee so I have no idea how much it is. As for the beeping every time an email comes in, you can turn that off. You can instead have it vibrate or turn off the feature altogether.

Although the device is very addicting, I also get about 100 emails a day so I find it really helpful to manage emails. I can read them while eating breakfast, stuck in traffic, etc. It also gives me a bit of flexibility to get out of the office because I can run to the store or mall and no one from work needs to know I'm out. I can still read and respond to emails real-time.

So, while you might find it somewhat annoying to have him carrying a blackberry with him (it would drive me crazy if my DH had one), it may help free up his time a bit since he can read, delete, respond, etc. whenever he has short moments of downtime.