As you have probably heard the rumors by now, Research in Motion will soon come out with it’s next-generation, full QWERTY keyboard, MP3 playing, Wi-Fi enabled, Razr thin smartphone called the BlackBerry 8800. There will actually be two versions (at least two) of the 8800, one without a digital camera code named “Indigo” rumored to come out late this year, and one with a digital camera code named “Crimson” rumored to come out Q2 of 07.
The question of the day is will the BlackBerry 8800 be even more popular than the BlackBerry Pearl? As you can see from a poll over on BlackBerry Forums, almost 60% of the poll takers say that they are 100% sure that they will get a BlackBerry 8800. Based on this I would have to say that the 8800, at least with existing BlackBerry users, could be more popular than the Pearl.
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Written by Robb Dunewood on October 23rd, 2006 with 10 comments.
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According to a study cited in BrandWeek.com the BlackBerry is on a bit of a slide as far as brand loyalty goes, moving from the No. 6 spot down to 17. The BlackBerry didn’t fall as far as the Treo, however, as it fell from 4 down to 23.
“There are more choices”, said Allyn Hall director of consumer markets at In-Stat, Scottsdale, Ariz. “Blackberry had a monopoly for a while; they were the first to make receiving e-mail using a mobile device practical. There are a ton of alternatives now and more in the chute.”
I am going to go out on a limb and assume that this study was conducted before the release of the BlackBerry Pearl and the BlackBerry 8703e. My theory is a lot of BlackBerry users, especially those on Verizon and Sprint, started to explore other possibilities, not so much because they didn’t want a BlackBerry any longer, but, because they had their BlackBerry 7250 devices for a few years, wanted something new, and were very limited on new BlackBerrys that they could move to.
I would be willing to bet that if the BlackBerry 8703e or even the BlackBerry Pearl were available back when this study was conducted, you would see a much lower ranking for the BlackBerry than what you do now.
Written by Robb Dunewood on October 23rd, 2006 with 2 comments.
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