While BlackBerry takes a hit with two outages in a week in North America, across the pond in the UK, the enterprise-friendly mobile device is proving to be an unexpected hit. According to the Financial Times (FT), students power BlackBerry growth at UK universities. FT points out that for many students, the full QWERTY keyboard and fantastic messaging options make using a BlackBerry the logical course of action for active mobile users in the college age group. Apparently BlackBerry is no longer seen as an enterprise only device.

What does this mean to you?

It’s interesting how glaringly different perceptions can be from one English speaking nation to another. In the States, the iPhone is the preferred mobile device amongst young people. But the UK sets their own trend with the preference for the BlackBerry. This provides an interesting contrast as BlackBerry phones must watch out for infected PDF files, while iPhone users need to be wary of botnets. Security aside, it seems that it really comes down to the functionality the user is looking for in their mobile experience.