Blackberry Raspberry

"Sent via Blackberry."

This is apparently the closing du jour.  Nowadays, the Solipsist often opens an e-mail from Friend of Solipsist and others with the above-mentioned tag at the end.  Isn't it bad enough that we have product placement in everything from "The Office" to the classroom?  Do we need it at the end of our e-mails?

Since when has it become important for the mode of message delivery to call attention to itself?  In olden times, did users of carrier pigeons feel the need to explicitly identify the messengers: "This note transported via Mr. Pidgles"?  Did Cherokee signalmen have to puff out a disclaimer at the end of their communiques: "This smoke signal generated via the waving of an Acme Indian Blanket"?

What are the corporate chieftains at Blackberry worried about?  Sure, without that message at the end, one might assume that the message was tapped out on a laptop or texted from a standard cell-phone (So 2008!).  But what would be the harm in that?  Is Blackberry that insecure that they feel the need constantly to remind people of their existence?

Is there some distinction in the quality of messages typed on a Blackberry?  If so, the Solipsist has yet to discover it.  If anything, it would seem that such messages would be shorter than others, unless one has a passion for typing on a teeny tiny typewriter.

Fun fact: Did you know that typing the word typewriter uses only keys in the top row of a "qwerty" keyboard?  Let's see Blackberries top that!

This post sent via good old-fashioned desktop!  So there!