How Is The iPhone Killing The BlackBerry?

iPhone user
#1. April 14th, 2008, at 8:39 AM.

How can you ask people not to respond without using fanboy logic when your post is ridden with it. Do you honestly believe that RIM posted bigger quarterly earnings that Apple? That is some good ish you’re smoking.

Thought
#2. April 14th, 2008, at 8:56 AM.

I think it’s just predictable that some would get swept away in the excitement of the iPhone and predict it taking over the world. That’s going to happen with any device that generates a lot of enthusiasm.

Cooler heads from day one have noted how there’s room for a lot of sales growth for both the iPhone and its competitors. Jobs himself made this point at his public introduction of the iPhone.

What some people do not understand is that this is not a zero sum game, whereby the market is already saturated. The market for smart phones is growing by leaps and bounds, and so everyone can win in this environment if they just execute well.

Ben P
#3. April 14th, 2008, at 9:25 AM.

My boss has and iPhone… but still carries around an old 7100i because it 1) Syncs all his contacts and appointments over the air 2) delivers his email instantly. Until his iPhone can do that - he’ll carry both.

I know this is supposedly coming - but I’ll believe it when I see it…

Poon
#4. April 14th, 2008, at 9:56 AM.

I don’t think the iPhone will kill Blackberry. Screens that are a magnate for dust underneath, lousy cameras, and RIM with all of its many and unexplained power outages will do that. For that reason alone I am thinking of switching. If iPhone can coordinate between Outlook and home and Outlook at work the way my Curve does, I’ll make the switch.

crazylegs
#5. April 14th, 2008, at 9:59 AM.

Thought is 100% right.

iPhone user, as usual, is defensive when anyone questions anything Apple. Rob didn’t say that RIM’s earnings were higher than Apple’s, he just said a fact, which is RIM has posted record numbers since the iPhone was introduced. This is a fact. This fact cannot be disputed.

One can dispute whether the torrid pace of growth will continue. This is usually the content of most articles written on the subject with the conclusion being that it cannot. I don’t agree. RIM will grow massively in the coming years - again, read Thought’s post. And what’s funny is that iPhone will grow massively as well so there is no need for this vitriolic reaction from Apple fanboys. I guess years of believing that the Mac is a better platform, but only maintaining a tiny market share relative to Windows has built up a lot of animosity which is coming out now that Apple is enjoying so much success.

Ed M.
#6. April 14th, 2008, at 10:25 AM.

RIM & Blackberry Forever!!!!! If the iPhone was the only mobile device available, I still wouldn’t buy one!!!

New BB User
#7. April 14th, 2008, at 11:06 AM.

Boring…

I’d like to see how BB will come up with some cool product to compete with iPhone. Not who kill who. Both BB and iPhone have their advantages and disadvantages. Why can’t someone make something that have all their advantages and we (the consumers) be benefit from the competition?

I would like to see RIM to lose some market share to force them to make better products. Unlike someone blindly follow BB just because they use them for a very long time.

Nothing last forever. Better products not necessary always take over the market. However, it would inspire a better product and service. I do not agree with loyalty of consumers to companies. Instead, companies should loyal to their customers.

Michael
#8. April 14th, 2008, at 11:25 AM.

I will admit Apple develop a first rate piece of hardware targeting Apple centric users and those looking for the latest and greatest “cool” gadget. As a business user, and sales professional, I’ve yet to find the business driver behind the iPhone. Should Apple license ActiveSync from MS, and get it to work, I still don’t see a compelling reason for companies to switch hundreds of devices to the iPhone. The iPhone still lacks business applications and solutions and Apples SDK shows the limitations of the phone - either Apple restricted or otherwise.
RIM’s advantage has been to build a device that is stable, open and easy to work with. I’ve yet, in 11 years of wireless sales, found one product that has matched it.

gquaglia
#9. April 14th, 2008, at 11:33 AM.

you believe some of these articles, all mobile phones will be iPhones eventually.

Its already started, look how many iphone clones are out. And there are more on the way.

and celebrities keep flocking to the BlackBerry when we can rarely find a picture or two of celebs with iPhones.

Probably because they get them free in the graft bags they get at major celeb events. And who really cares what celebs do. Most of them are self absorbed, brain dead morons.

Andy Capp
#10. April 14th, 2008, at 12:07 PM.

I own both a Blackberry 8700G and an iPhone. The iPhone was beyond my initial expectation. It is an excellent browser and an outstanding way to read emails with attachments. But my primary phone will always be my Blackberry. Why?:
1) The Keyboard
2) The BB Messenger
3) Push Email
These 3 features are what´s keeping my BB as my primary phone.
What can BB do to kill the iPhone:
1) Longer lasting Battery
2) Better email attahment reader (ie when i get a .pdf file and it is an image the zoom function will give me a better image but not a clearer one)
3) Better browser ( I have tried the mini opera which is better but not near as good as Safari)
4) Better Gmail integration
5) More Memory to have more ipod functions
6) Better outlook integration ( I use BES, but I don´t really like it)

BB_Smurf
#11. April 14th, 2008, at 12:09 PM.

I will have to agree with Thought and crazylegs.

The iPhone is one impressive machine with a lot of style, but it falls short for the business user. I am new to the smart phone world & was initially considering the iPhone, but after testing it out, I realized it just couldn’t perform the business functions that I needed. I ended up gettting a Curve, which I now love & cannot live without.

That said, BB could certainly improve a couple of the calendar features, such as increased felixibility in the “Recurrence” feld. I used tobe able to do this on my Palm Pilot. Maybe Palm stop trying to make handsets and just develop software. I’d like to see Palm & BB colaborate on a handset, since they both cater to the business user.

JMK
#12. April 14th, 2008, at 12:10 PM.

Until Apple gets off AT&T or AT&T gets faster, I can’t switch. It’s just too slow for my needs. But it is a sweet device. They fix the speed, the poor battery life, the keyboard that cannot be used for emails, and make email as seemless as BBs, I would switch.

But, Apple is historically very good at product development and very poor at distribution. If not for iTunes (and to some extent the Pepsi giveaway that led to thousands of people suddenly have 50 or 100 songs in iTunes), the iPods would not have the market share they currently have. And Apple is only in as good a position as they are because of the iPods (and where they took them).

Kirkrr
#13. April 14th, 2008, at 12:19 PM.

BB main market is corporate - not a traditional Apple strength. In addition, the primary BB corporate user is there because of push email, and corporation’s desire to always have access to employees, even in off hours. There is a reason they are affectionally called “crackberries”.

The fundamental transition here is the elimination of the hardware as the platform; the software is the platform of the next generation phone.

Blackberry’s very limited operating system, although wonderful at doing what it does extremely well, is well …. very limited. Going beyond what it does well, is tenuous territory at best.

The iPhone UNIX OS, with the SDK opening up the doors for a wealth of new software and applications, is opportunity personified. The iPhone of this point in time, is a very different device and market than a traditional BB user. However, in the future, this distinction will blur.

The other main change is the user experience. Apple, long the king of human interface design and adherence to consistent approaches that enhance user productivity, has changed the way people interact with their mobile devices.

If Microsoft had not bastardized the IMAP protocol to be MS proprietary (EEE - Embrace-Extend-Extinguish), then ActiveSync would not be an issue, and competition for features and capabilities would abound. As it is, MS connectivity is essential to businesses who have chosen to go down the closed proprietary path of Microsoft. Again, this is not the hardware, but the software - more specifically, closed data formats that create barriers to leaving once you’ve committed $$$ to an approach. In an ideal world, open data formats would produce feature competition. BB has the current advantage of supporting this closed ActiveSync format and the multitude of Exchange servers.

This too shall change. We’ll see what happens when the playing (read: data) field is level. BB has some innovation to do, and their OS constraints are their long term downfall.

bluehorseshoe
#14. April 14th, 2008, at 1:07 PM.

For the corporate world…

The BB offers security, which the iPhone doesn’t. When that ship sails and the iPhone can offer it, then it comes down to:

1. Service provider
2. Keyboard, Battery, etc.
3. Multimedia (diabled camera for security reasons)
4. Email
5. and…Cost. You can pull a BB for $100 or less on a corporate plan where the iPhone I sincerely doubt will ever drop to that level. I think the BB wins out here…

For the consumer Market…

The iPhone wins out unless the consumer is heavy into email and doesn’t like the on screen keyboard. The BB started off nicely with the Pearl, and perhaps the rumored 9000 will add some more ‘multimedia’ features to the phone. But for now, the iPhone has more eye candy and a browser that none come close to.

Like Tony Soprano said…”Let truth be told, there’s enough garbage out there for everyone”. Same holds true here…both have strong arguments for their existance and will perform as well.

@ iPhone user

RIMM actually sold more units than the iPhone in the last quarter. Earnings will be out of range since the iPhone costs more and RIMM offers a variety of different phones at different points. So Robb isn’t smoking anything, just pointing out a fact that RIMM sold more units and has posted record earnings. Didn’t say RIMM beat them in earnings, just units sold.

insider
#15. April 14th, 2008, at 1:54 PM.

I’ve had an iPhone for a week and love it, but for very different reasons that i loved my previous Blackberry’s.

The iPhone is a great IPOD video player that my Blackberry couldn’t be, a great Mobile web browser that even opera on BB can’t touch, but isn’t a great one handed device and isn’t the best at email. That said, the full html email looks terrific on the iphone and works with Exchange using a free trial of Syncronica..

I think the iPhone will improve, and pick up quite a few business users.. but they won’t be corporates, who would still prefer the robustness of a Blackberry and the fact that they’re supposed to increase productivity not increase your music listening or video viewing time..

My Blackberry was a great

Steph
#16. April 14th, 2008, at 2:42 PM.

I drooled all over myself when I the iPhone was released. I promised myself that I would get no other phone, and I looked forward to being able to use that awesome browser to go online at anytime.

Then, tons of my friends got iPhones. Playing with theirs made me want one even more. What beats being able to YouTube at anytime? Plus, all other phone browsers suck compare to the iPhone’s. Also, the form factor is just awesome.

So, I waited until I could afford a $500 iPhone. And waited. And waited. And, when I couldn’t wait anymore, I bought a pretty red refurbed BB Pearl, with company discount, for $15 bucks.

I don’t regret it either, especially since I’ve found out that the iPhone lacks voice activated dialing. And with the 2MB that I’ve added to my Pearl, I can save media to my phone. Maybe not as much as I could have added to the iPhone, but the functionality is still there.

So, unless Apple plans to drop it’s prices to compete with the BB, the iPhone will never kill the BB. Never.

: )

Kirkrr
#17. April 14th, 2008, at 9:11 PM.

One other noteworthy tidbit:

AT&T unlimited data plan
iPhone $20 / month
BB $30 / month ???????

Go figure. My BB 7290 is sans data plan, but IF…IF I move to an iPhone, then data connectivity is virtually mandatory (a serious flaw? - offline BUSINESS functionality lacking). My cell phone is an extension of my business capability, not a portable entertainment device. The 8120 (wifi Pearl) is a leap forward, as I seldom do email except at my / client / airport.

For a person that travels widely, AT&T is the only real option for a network carrier (broad coverage and global GSM support), regardless of Verizon’s “can you hear me now” coverage campaign vs. AT&Ts “more bars in more places” slogan. Both are good, but they would be awesome on the same network technology, sharing infrastructure, and competing on phone features and service capability. TMobile is still spotty coverage for someone that travels extensively, so Cingular was the obvious choice for iPhone support.

nat
#18. April 15th, 2008, at 10:30 AM.

Touch phones are a fab! They are non-reliable and will go out of style.

GBVZ
#19. April 15th, 2008, at 6:26 PM.

@ gquaglia

The comment about who cares what phones Celebs have… on a personal note, I think you’re right. People shouldn’t care what celebs wear/drive/talk on. However, that’s not real life. I believe it is good marketing for RIM that we see celebs on their BBs. There are actually a lot of people out there that watch these celebreality shows… they’ve all got Curves! People watch those shows and want what those people have… the house/car/Curve… So while it may not be important to you… it’s extremely important to RIM.

bluehorseshoe
#20. April 15th, 2008, at 7:35 PM.

It’s just like NASCAR. People really don’t follow the sport like baseball or football. They follow it because of the accidents and drinking. It’s one big party! And the cars have sponsors who they do follow. Like walking billboards. So even though many can give a rats Ass about whose driving the car, they’ll walk around rooting for the guy in the Jack Daniels car, and I can’t blame them. Who doesn’t like a good old shot of Jack?

Jay
#21. April 17th, 2008, at 1:27 AM.

Have a BB pearl and it is a phone that I can use for all time! I have checked out the iphone and I agree that is jus a fad and that touch pad is jus wrong I perceive problems down the road and BB will take over

David G. Smith, MD
#22. April 26th, 2008, at 10:00 PM.

Interesting, I stumbled across this forum during a search. As an outsider looking in it looks like a lot of people trying to put down another product to make them feel better about what they have. I do predict the iphone will be the #1 phone in the market within the next 1-2 years. With the new version coming out with the SDK to allow production of all those business programs you all want, push email, exchange server, G3, etc, there will be a lot of BB users changing over. Wait and see.