I don’t know if it is (I hope not, at least), but Phil Wolff over at the Skype Journal appears to disagree. We’re all aware of the 24/7 connectivity that owning a BlackBerry brings, and the incessant checking for emails may slowly be turning those little notes into the new form of instant messaging. The article cites companies like Google and Yahoo who’ve implemented IM systems into their emailing services, but you know what, I still don’t see emailing replacing the original IM.
Now that Google, AOL, and Yahoo! are blending IM into their webmail services, you should be able to tell if someone is getting your message right now. You still won’t know if it was lost in a massive inbox or misfiled in a spam bucket. And it won’t apply to people outside your hosted mail service. But it works and will increase its reach.
I’ll file this under “weak argument” right now. Just because BlackBerry users appear to be connected all the time, it definitely doesn’t mean that they’ll get your email as soon as it leaves your inbox. There could be network issues, their BlackBerry could be acting up, or, this is a long-shot, they might actually be working and not have time to reply. Or the receiver hates your guts and wants nothing to do with you (more realistic than you think, by the way). Let’s work on getting AIM and ICQ rolled-out without a hitch first, then we’ll talk e-mail, ok?