I just read an interview over on News.com where Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, has some interesting things to say about “smart devices” and the BlackBerry.
Ballmer seems to believe that when it comes to smart devices the only two players or Nokia/Symbian and Microsoft.
Actually, I’ll be so bold as to say that the two of us (Nokia and Microsoft) stand out in that area. Then you have some guys who are more niche players–Palm is more of a niche player, (Research In Motion’s) BlackBerry is more of a niche player, those Linux devices from Motorola, particularly in China, (mean it) is more of a niche player.
Isn’t it amazing how a cleverly placed word or two can make an otherwise ridiculous claim which is the farthest thing from reality actually plausible?
Let me explain…
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I just read a post on ITWire.com titled “More iPhone rumours but BlackBerry killer? Hardly” and even though I don’t think that Apple’s, yet to be officially announced but we know it’s coming out, iPhone will be a BlackBerry Killer, it will provide more competition to the BlackBerry, specifically the BlackBerry Pearl, than a lot of folks think.
There is no question that the BlackBerry dominates in the corporate smartphone world and Research in Motion isn’t even seriously being challenged by their competitors in this space. The iPhone, however, will play in the consumer smartphone sandbox and although RIM has seen incredible success with the launch of it’s first consumer device, the BlackBerry Pearl, they may only enjoy a four to six month headstart on Apple with the release of the iPhone.
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Just last week I wrote a post about the iPhone that will be coming out early next year from Apple and how on the consumer side of things, the BlackBerry will have a bit of competition. Well, it looks like Apple has its eye on more than just the consumer that likes to listen to music and take a picture or two with their mobile phone.
Before the first version of the Apple iPhone is even officially announced, reports are stating that Apple already has the second version of the iPhone in the works and that the device will be much more like a smartphone such as the Blackberry than just a phone that plays music.
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You would not believe the number of times that I have been asked over the passed couple of days if the the new Cingular BlackJack from Samsung is the new BlackBerry that takes pictures and plays MP3s that I have been talking about.
There is a really cool Cingular BlackJack commercial out that has people going to the stores. I wonder how many folks had BlackBerry Pearl on their shopping lists but left the store with a BlackJack? The commercial makes the device look pretty sweet.
This BlackJack could give a bit of competition to the Cingular BlackBerry Pearl whenever it comes out.
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Apple’s iPhone is the first “BlackBerry Killer” that I really think could give Research in Motion all that they could handle. Before you think that I have gone completely nuts, let me explain myself.
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You won’t find too many people claiming that the Palm builds Treos better than RIM builds BlackBerrys. Sales definitely won’t show that. So, if you are Palm and you are about to come out with your brand new shiny Treo 680 that competes directly against the BlackBerry Pearl, what do you do?
Sell it for less… CrunchGear is reporting that the price Cingular wants to set for the Treo 680 is $175 with a 2-year contract. That is a full $25 less than the BlackBerry Pearl.
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The trend with smartphones recently has been to make them cute and attractive to regular, everyday consumers along with making them cheaper. Starting back in June with the release of the Motorola Q, the price of these devices dipped under the $200 mark.
Historically, the lofty price tag on most smartphones, often exceeding $400 to $500 dollars for the device in addition to a voice a data plan, set the bar too high for many consumers. Lowering smartphone prices to the range of high end mobile phones with advanced features such as MP3 and video playback addresses one side of the equation. Data plans, however, that often cost $30 or more on top of minutes plans still make smartphones such as the popular BlackBerry Pearl cost prohibitive to a large segment of potential smart phone buyers.
Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie has talked about the possibility of carries offering BlackBerry devices without the data plans. My question is will we start to see cheaper data plans targeted at consumers such as the BlackBerry Personal Plan from Cingular?
I am sure you’ve heard the saying, “If you can’t beat ‘em… Join ‘em”. This appears to be the edict that the Windows Mobile running Ipaq manufacturer (a.k.a HP) CEO, Mark Hurd is living by.
Actually, I think that it was more like, “If you can’t beat ‘em, continue making all the Ipaqs that we can for all those poor souls who haven’t figured out just how much better the BlackBerry is than Windows Mobile, and, since I know the real deal, I’ll join ‘em and pray that our investors don’t find out that I am using our biggest competitor’s gear because compared to the BlackBerry, our stuff sucks.”
I’ve got $10 bucks that says every HP board member owns a BlackBerry.
Read more…
The other day we put up a post about the new Treo 680 coming out from Palm that will be marketed towards consumers kind of like how the BlackBerry Pearl is. As I was looking up information on Treo 680 my oldest daughter said something to me about the 680 that she has never said about any BlackBerry, including the BlackBerry Pearl before. “Wow Dad, that new BlackBerry is really cute, especially the orange one.” I, of course, told her that it wasn’t a BlackBerry and the it was the new Treo 680 from Palm. She said that she likes it better because it is much cuter than that new BlackBerry with the camera.
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