Politico’s Mike Allen Defines ‘Hip’

Politico‘s Mike Allen is learning a lot of hip things in Austin, where he’s reporting from the South by Southwest (SXSW), a film and music festival.

Among the cooler things he’s picking up on there is just what is in and what isn’t. Apparently, he says, the BlackBerry is on its way out and Washington could be impacted.

“Hanging last night with the hip kids at the Magnolia Café on South Congress Street (we ordered the “hummadilla,” ‘followed by crawfish etouffe), nothing was more embarrassing than a BlackBerry – worse than taking a lunchbox to school when all the other kids have switched to bags. Here, you gotta have a Droid, or maybe an iPhone,” he wrote in this morning’s Playbook.

Allen’s prediction? “As video gets more integral to news, campaigns and political mobilization, Washington will experience a tipping point away from the ‘Berry,’” he wrote.

So will Allen be doing away with his device?

Maybe he was humiliated pulling out his BlackBerry amidst his hipster friends, but he told FishbowlDC, “I don’t see it imminently, as my selection of tape recorders will suggest.”

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