BlackBerry Users Ignored at SXSW

I am a die hard BlackBerry user and I will sing its praises to the highest rooftops but the SXSW Conference is already changing my mind and I’m only a few hours in. There are a couple of companies at SXSW Interactive showing off some very cool technology that only works on iPhone and Android devices but not BlackBerries. Why is this? Do they not have the budget to develop a BlackBerry App? Is it too complicated for them? Or do they just not care and it’s really a case of iPhone, Android snobbery. It reminds me of web developers that only design for Firefox even though most business still comes from people using Internet Explorer.

Regardless, Stickybits looks awesome. They offer barcode stickers that you can stick to any object and then link a document or videos and photos to it. You can then interact with everyone who comes in contact with that object. It uses barcode and QR code technology that you can ready using your mobile device iPhone or Android device. Maybe they will announce that the Stickybits app is available for BlackBerries at the SXSW show?

It seems like location based services are getting a lot of early attention at SXSWi and it looks like Twitter is going to announce their location based technology on opening day (March 12). Apparently Facebook has something in the works too and the geo-location battle is already heating up.

I am very interested to start playing with Gowalla even though I am a faithful Foursquare user. There is not yet a Gowalla BlackBerry app, but they have come half-way and made a mobile site for BlackBerry users who want to use Gowalla so at least its a start. Foursquare has a huge presence at SXSW getting ready to combat Gowalla in their little war. I have to give Gowalla the upper hand in this fight as they are based here in Austin, but I will be cheering for the underdog, Foursquare, and I plan to collect all 16 of their custom SXSW badges.

There are other reasons why I am being sensitive about my Blackberry. I arrived in Austin, TX late last night after a minor flight delay in Denver and then had to track down our trade show booth at the airport before finally arriving at the Austin Hilton where the SXSW Conference is taking place. Upon checkin, the cheery front desk attendant handed me a piece of paper with Wi-Fi set-up instructions and told me it’s free Wi-Fi at the trade show and in all the rooms for the duration of the conference. The guy behind me had the Wi-Fi set-up on his iPhone by the time that I gathered my bags and made it to the elevator. I knew the BlackBerry would take a little longer to set-up, based on previous experience, but I was not worried.

As soon as I got to my room, I set up the laptop with no hassles but my BlackBerry would not connect to the network. After 45 minutes of trying I gave up at 2:30am and went to bed. This morning I talked to the Hilton Hotel Internet support and they had me up and running in under 5 minutes. If you are having the same BlackBerry connection problems at SXSW then call them at 1-800-793-9521. Make sure that you have attempted to connect to the Wi-Fi profile “hhonors” first and then be prepared to give customer support your device MAC address and they can log you in manually. Go to “Network Details” under “Wi-Fi Options” on your BlackBerry. If you can not figure out how to do this take your BlackBerry, throw it out the nearest window, and buy an iPhone.

Chris Breikss will be posting from SXSW all week and you can follow him at @chrisbreikss as well as @6S_Marketing.

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