BlackBerry: The portable office:

Gadget: BlackBerry personal digital assistant.

What is it: A mobile phone that allows you to receive and send e-mails as well as access your calendar and contacts book.

Why you need it: A useful mobile office device for any broker or BDM, keeping you in constant e-mail contact with your office and your clients and making sure you don't miss any appointments.

How much it will cost you: Be prepared to spend some money. From $500 to $800 for the handset, monthly fees from $50 to over $100 plus the cost of your regular mobile service.

Where you can get it: Most mobile phone retailers will carry it, with network coverage provided by Optus, Telstra and Vodafone.

The low-down: BlackBerries have been around for a few years now, following on from the popularity of handheld devices such as palms and other PDAs. In the last three months alone, one million of these devices have been sold.

Which one should you get: The latest model on the Australian market is the BlackBerry 8700, which comes with 64MB of memory and 16MB of RAM, which increases the speed of the applications. It also has a longer battery life of up to 16 days standby and four hours talk time.

What brokers can get out of it: The BlackBerry 8700 uses push e-mail technology, which means that e-mails are automatically sent to the handset in the same way that text messages are forwarded on from a mobile phone. In this way brokers can keep in touch with their clients, their BDM and the office as well as check the progress of electronically submitted applications while on the move.

Other useful features: As a mobile phone, it allows for seamless international roaming provided your service provider supports this function, as well as functions like speakerphone, smart dialling, conference calling, speed dialling and call forwarding.
The phone also comes with full web-browsing functionality using a HTML web browser. But it remains purely a business phone, as it doesn't come with music/video playback support or an integrated camera.

Word on the street: Gerard Deegan, a BDM with Keystart Home Loans based in Perth, says the company provides him with a BlackBerry which allows him to receive scenarios from brokers as well as e-mails from the office. "I can access e-mails from brokers at any point and respond from wherever I am. This means the request doesn't get lost," he explains.