DeWitt has ditched his BlackBerry, not wanting to be connected 24-7 anymore.

I can understand, I’ve had e-mail on my handheld for about 7 years now:

1. Palm V and Palm Vx with OmniSky
2. Palm i705
3. Treo 300
4. Treo 600
5. BlackBerry 8700

It doesn’t matter what device you use, push e-mail to a mobile device is just disruptive and annoying after a while. However, that doesn’t make the devices bad – quite the contrary. The key is having the discipline to shut them off (or at least shut off the push e-mail feature).

One of the things I mentioned as a plus for FastMail¹ is the great rule-based forwarding capabilities. You have the same thing on the BlackBerry side – you can choose what you want to receive and also mark certain things as high-priority and customize delivery accordingly.

Having the option to read and respond to e-mail on the go (not to mention the goodness of your PIM data, Berry411 and Google Maps) is great. The key is that it is an option.

E-mail isn’t meant to be real-time. If someone needs an immediate response on something, they can use real-time communication like IM, voice or SMS.

Put your foot down, your BlackBerry is your tool, not vice-versa.

1. That link has a referral ID in it for me to get some small credit if you sign up. [back]