I was just talking to the lady at my office that handles our company cell phones today and she said that she has had atleast 50% of the pearls returned for warranty issues. She said the pearl is usually the problem, it quits working but she also said the other big issue is the keys seem to get stuck. I used to think the pearl was a nice phone but after talking with her, I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone.
If you want a blackberry, go for the new curve. It's fairly small, has a qwerty keyboard, and so far has had an excellent track record with our company.