The BlackBerry debate: will they, won’t they?

Just imagine the super-stressed, BlackBerry brandishing Indian corporate. He/ she has put in 18 hours at work, is rushing back home praying silently that the client won’t review his documents now, when there is a tell-tale red flicker on the phone. There, any hopes of sleep have been effectively crushed. He drives on, cursing the device.

This is not something managers will admit to. Not on the record and not in interviews. But they are willing to whisper, that if there are no BlackBerry services in India, things may not be so bad after all.

“Oh, it’d be a relief to not check the phone every five minutes,” confides a senior executive at a creative firm. “Holidays will be so much more peaceful.” Many agree with him, though they know that their firms will replace the BlackBerry with something equally effective.

While the debate continues between the Indian Government and Research In Motion, a section of the country’s cell phone users are waiting with baited breath. The verdict could either mean that life goes on as usual, or that for a brief while, they can hope to loosen the strings that bind them so tightly to work.