Just two years ago, everyone I knew seemed to have a BlackBerry- they loved it too. Now, I feel like the only person in the world who still has one. BlackBerry has really struggled to stay ahead of the competition, and with the recent release of the Samsung Galaxy SIII, BlackBerry will soon be crushed into the ground.

Cast your thoughts back a decade and you’ll remember that the indisputable biggest name in mobile manufacturing was Nokia. Where are they now? Motorola is another company that were once mighty and now are desperately struggling. BlackBerry is not far behind them, and in my humble opinion will not be able to turn around the rapid decline in market share they’ve experienced this year.

Mobile phones are constantly changing as the demands of the consumer changes. Mobile phones followed landline phones, a method of vocal communication between two people over a long distance. SMS text messaging was an extension of this functionality, allowing one person to send a quick message to another. Despite the insanely high cost-per-character of an SMS, texting really took off.

Desperate to move away from the clunky, oversized mobiles of the 90s, manufacturers created smaller and smaller phones, culminating in the Alcatel OT-E100. There was even a phone half the size of that, but I cannot for the life of me remember which one it was, I only remember its girly-blue colour. Mobile phone companies were selling phones that were so small they were actually impairing the usability of their product!

A couple of touchscreen phones started coming on the market. They weren’t great phones- the technology was primitive and the screens were unresponsive. Nevertheless, early investors knew that touchscreen phones were the way forward.

Until now, phoning and texting were the phones’ main function.The arrival of the BlackBerry, and subsequently BlackBerry messenger, further evolved the mobile phone’s messaging abilities. Suddenly people could send unlimited messages to one another using this Messenger service, by adding a relatively cheap £5 a month BlackBerry services to their contract. When each text used to cost 30p, this was a godsend.

However, the BlackBerry Messenger that proved to be so popular would later contribute to the phone’s demise. SMS texting got cheaper, cheaper, and cheaper again and now most contracts include unlimited texts. But even today, anyone wanting BlackBerry messenger still needs to add a £5 monthly BlackBerry services option to their tarrif.

We had phone calls, then texts, then BlackBerry messenger, then reverted back to texting. The next evolution in connectivity came with the growing popularity of social network sites; Facebook and Twitter. People wanted to access them on their phones as well as their desktops.

Facebook and Twitter were designed for the web. They were designed for full size monitors, keyboards, and a quick responsive mouse. Full-screen touchscreen phones became more popular and this was partly because of the web browser experience. iPhones really started taking off, and Google got to work on its Android software. BlackBerry didn’t realise the demand for social networking sites and continued to refine its messenger service, its push email and its calendar.

At one time, inbuilt cameras were rare, not installed as standard. Games were Snake and little else. Phones began to evolve to become more entertaining- they are no longer devices simply for staying in touch with people. Now they’re an entertainment centre; people use their phones to watch movies, listen to music, browse the web, play games. They use their phones as satnavs. As trackers to see how far they’ve jogged that morning. As personal assistants, letting them know the nearest McDonalds restaurant by asking their phone a quick question.

The fact is, BlackBerry phones just can’t keep up with this. Speaking as the two year owner of a BlackBerry Bold 9780 – which isn’t a particularly old phone- I have to say I’m tempted to quit my contract early and get a Galaxy SIII.

My BlackBerry offers an appallingly inadequate web browsing experience. It has a smaller library of apps than Apple and Android, many of which are costly. Even if I held an unquestioned loyalty to BlackBerry and stayed with them forever, I wouldn’t want the £5 monthly BlackBerry services addon but I couldn’t shift the paranoia that I’d run up some hefty charges otherwise, or have an unusable phone, even though I don’t plan on using their services. It’s just too complicated and scary.

The phone can just about cope with multitasking but is slow in general. Games are pathetically unresponsive, due to the limitations of the touchpad and a non-touch screen. The notifications LED, in conjunction with the WhoIsIt Blinking app (yes, you actually need to download apps to get the sort of functionality you should have by default), often continues blinking away long after you’ve read your received text.

Trying to read through old text conversations is sometimes an impossibility, as the BlackBerry gets “stuck” halfway through a text, leaving you no option but to give up and return to the homescreen.

Finally, the BlackBerry just isn’t as cool as its Apple/Android rivals. There are some awesome features, like the Galaxy SIII’s “Smart Stay” feature which knows when you’re looking at the screen and prevents the phone from locking, which makes the BlackBerry look centuries old.

I’m afraid it’s a downward spiral for BlackBerry, unless they can offer a real full screen touchscreen alternative to Android. Within a year their handsets will be joining the cheap plastic remnants of Nokia and Motorola on a Taiwanese rubbish heap without even offering the seagulls a good last meal.