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.

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.

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.

: )

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

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.

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.