Since then Canada's Research in Motion has sold almost 20m BlackBerry smartphones, and I have upgraded at least half a dozen times as new models have come along.

But now I face a dilemma. In the past few months a rash of new smartphones have been launched – Apple's 3G iPhone in July and, more recently, the T-Mobile G1, the first smartphone powered by Google's Android open source operating system, as well as Sony Ericsson's Windows Mobile-powered Xperia.

All three have their strengths and weaknesses – but none support corporate e-mail as well, or as securely and reliably, as my current BlackBerry Curve. So I was particularly keen to get my hands on the new BlackBerry devices – some already launched, some about to be launched – that are designed to compete in the increasingly competitive smartphone market.