From what I've seen, it's not that a BB is all they can afford; it's that all of their friends are in BBM, and they prefer using it instead of SMS, so in switching to a non BB device would make it more difficult to keep in to touch with their social circle(s). They care very deeply about this, and not nearly as much about things like screen resolution or app availability.
Of course, this may only apply to the high school/college students I see and talk to. Maybe this phenomenon is an Ottawa only thing?
I agree that BBM may keep some cliques using Blackberries, but, as we see from Comscore, the trajectory in the last two years has dropped so rapidly for Black Berry, that we can be pretty certain they won't recover in the United States.
I would love to see country by country comparisons. As an Ex-Pat Canadian, it makes me happy to believe that some countries will continue to be dedicated to RIMM.
Quite a few people here in Ottawa still have Blackberries. Mostly government types and a lot of them carry an Android/iPhone as well.
RIM signed a lot of very long term contracts with a good number of the large enterprises and various levels of government in Canada that they will stay afloat for a long time. By very long I mean you can count them in decades..
Of course, this may only apply to the high school/college students I see and talk to. Maybe this phenomenon is an Ottawa only thing?