There’s a good reason they are called “Crackberries.” The tiny black or blue devices with the handy keyboard keep us in touch even when we probably shouldn’t be reachable. My wife was only mildly annoyed by my addiction until the Sunday morning when I started replying to e-mails at church. I have since moved over to T-Mobile’s Pocket PC phone, which was really the only wireless data device besides RIM’s Blackberry that was on the market at the time. Since then we’ve seen an explosion of devices - the Treo, the XDA II, the Siemens SX66 (also known as the Audiovox XV6600), the Samsung phones, etc, etc. And of course, most are available from any carrier, which brings a new complexity to the purchase decision.

How does a small company decide where to go? Do you like the Blackberry’s keyboard? Do you like Pocket PC’s applications and storage? Do you like the Treo’s tiny hybrid of the two? Then once you pick a model, do you go with Verizon’s coverage or T-Mobile’s value? Cingular is the service of choice on Capitol Hill so you certainly have to take their plan into account… Arrrgh!

If you know where there is a good online tool to help with this decision making process, I would love to hear about it. CNET.com took a shot at analyzing several new convergence devices, but there’s got to be something better out there… something more like a Q&A wizard…

This has continually been a stumbling block as we try to help small businesses who need the functionality but are afraid to make a decision without knowing all the options. Thanks in advance for your help!