Re: I am puzzled by the premise of this article
Good point - at the iPhone keynote in 2007, Jobs actually made a point of explaining that they were reinventing the smart phone, making it easier to use, and more powerful. The full transcript is here: http://www.european-rhetoric.com/analyses/ikeynote-analysis-iphone/transcript-2007/
However, Blackberry was not just for management types - I knew plenty of non-management people who loved their Blackberries too (I wasn't one of them, but then again, I never actually owned one). The problem for them was that there were just not as many users as those who loved their iPhones (I've never owned one of them either, mind), and later, Android devices. Once I got used to all the extra screen real estate, I simply couldn't go back to sacrificing half of it for a physical keyboard. Initially, that was the main difference between the two for me. Of course, once the app ecosystem grew for iOS and Android at an exponential rate, that was it, contest over.
Also, BBM made Blackberry relevant again with at least one demographic, for a while:
"Many young people did: Ofcom statistics confirm BlackBerry was the favoured smartphone of teenagers, cornering 37% of the youth market (44% for teenage girls), compared with just 24% across all age groups."
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/07/bbm-rioters-communication-method-choice
Biting the hand that feeds IT
