Phrase: someone will BlackBerry you

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Thu Feb 20 04:51:34 UTC 2014


The company that inspired the term "crackberry" has fallen from grace,
and now it has inspired a cautionary phrase: "someone will blackberry
you".

Article: Is pCell the Holy Grail of wireless networking?
Author: Dan Farber
February 18, 2014 9:04 PM PST

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57619072-94/is-pcell-the-holy-grail-of-wireless-networking/

[Begin excerpt]
With just 12 people, Perlman's company is looking for strategic
partners to turn pCell into more than just a compelling technology
demo. "It's always tricky to do that in the world of competing
interests. We made it so there is no way to block it. Mobile carriers
can use it, and for those who want to do nothing, someone will
BlackBerry you."
[End excerpt]

In the past "someone will blackberry you" might have meant someone
will turn you into an addict. Now, apparently, it means that someone
with superior technology will render your primary product obsolete.

Both the term and the phrase are probably transitory, but a far-future
reader could use contemporaneous urban dictionary entries to decode
"crackberry" if that reader can see past the nonsensical definitions.

Garson

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