Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
January 18, 2009 at 10:26 pm

David,

No, it’s not really a trend so much as a single piece of data and it’s not hurting the usage. Think about the other side and how many kids and people of all ages that are texting people now. They don’t look at the keys and can spell things amazingly fast with just numbers, depending on their phones. A lot of phones now have full keyboards which actually make dialing vanity numbers insanely easier. You’re only looking at one phone and projecting the whole world will soon be using a blackberry which probably isn’t the case. Also take a look at http://www.TollFreeNumbers.com/blackberry Because blackberry has come up with a solution. Oh and how many years have blackberries been around? It’s more than 5 years I think. It’s kind of like saying that the internet is going to eliminate the public library or dozens of other predictions people make.

Companies don’t use vanity numbers because they’re easier to dial. They use them because they’re easier to remember. And the fact that it takes a few extra seconds to dial doesn’t hurt them in some ways it could help them. It’s like using a jingle that people don’t like but which sticks in their heads. The bottom line is that making your front door easier to find is what brings in sales, not easier to open. If making your front door easier to open was the trick, every store in the world would have sensors to open the door as you walk up. And you wouldn’t have ever heard of the adage, “Location, Location, Location.”

You can predict that people will stop talking on the phone because your teenager uses it mostly for sending texts. You have to be careful when you project a trend you see in your personal life into the future too much. It’s kind of like projecting that the world is going to flood just because it’s raining where you are personally. It’s easy to assume it’s always going to be raining when it’s raining and going to be sunny when it’s sunny. But fortunately life doesn’t work really work like that.

Bill

Alan Cline (1 comments.) says:
March 16, 2009 at 10:41 am

One of my customers informed me that his new Blackberry did not have the same letters on the keypad that correlate to the standard phone keypad.

I just got a Blackberry Storm and I know that it has the correct letters.

So they are starting to consider vanity numbers in their design better now too!

Alan Cline
1-800 PLUMBING

Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
June 10, 2009 at 1:49 pm

I’ve never heard anyone having that type of problem. I don’t use a blackberry any more but my previous cell phone was a blackberry and it worked fine.

It sounds like a dialing issue, which I’m sure you have considered. But perhaps it changes the sensitivity of the keys when you do that on your phone.

Bill

Alan Cline (3 comments.) says:
October 21, 2009 at 3:44 pm

The concern of dialing a vanity number from a blackberry has come up several times in my business (1-800-PLUMBING)

When I first looked at the keypads, I was disappointed that Blackberry decided not to keep the same hard mapping of numbers and letters as the keys are so small that it would not be physically practical to put all that information on the small keys of some of the devices.

So, I understand that if you hold down the shift key and enter the number, then hit send, it will do the conversion. I really believe that they missed the boat on that one.

According to Bill Quimby, I should inform all my customers how to do this on their Blacberry.

When I first looked at this, I thought that they would have to put back the mapping, but I am quite sure they will not do that. However, there is a simple software fix, that will not requre the shift key be pushed to dial a vanity number. All Blackberry would have to do is upgrade their software so the user can automatically dial letters or numbers when making a phone call.

From a software perspective, it would be a little bit of work, but I am sure it would just be a small part of some upgraded software version that they have quite often.

If anyone else supports this fix, please comment and/or get in touch with me. I think we will have to get some momentum before this can be turned into a reality.

Firoj(new comment) says:
January 14, 2012 at 3:15 am

Thnaks. It works.

Eggheads think Toll Free will Die at TollFreeNumbers.com says:
March 26, 2009 at 6:44 am

[...] world is using the same phone and will obviously stop using vanity numbers. (never mind their new blackberry cell phone can still dial vanity numbers and they just don’t know how to do [...]

Changing Technology and Vanity Numbers at TollFreeNumbers.com says:
July 30, 2009 at 2:40 am

[...] is in their pocket. So for everyone that can’t dial vanity numbers because they don’t know how to dial vanity 800 numbers on their blackberry I think there’s also someone that can dial letters in a vanity number without hardly even looking [...]