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I know that this post is not about BlackBerrys or even how the iPhone is related to the BlackBerry, but, I find it hilarious, so, here it goes.
In an effort to “drum up interest” around the release of the iPhone 3G in Poland, Orange has hired dozens of actors to stand in line at 20 stores around the country.
It’s kind of sad that Orange feels that they need to resort to faking buzz around the iPhone. What’s even worse is that on some level it will probably work.
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I’ve been saying for a long time that Research in Motion puts too many eggs in one basket by (generally) allowing CDMA BlackBerry development to lag so far behind GSM development. You can tell me that GSM is the global standard until you are blue in the face but the reality is that the United States is RIM’s most important market and, depending on what numbers you look at, more CDMA BlackBerrys are sold in the U.S. than GSM.
RIM has been able to get by with their old release strategy largely in part because Verizon subscribers generally don’t switch carriers. RIM knows that even if a CDMA BlackBerry is released on Verizon a year after it it first released on a GSM carriers that there will be Verizon subscribers eagerly awaiting its launch.
Although I don’t agree with this strategy I can see some of the benefits of it from RIM’s perspective… The main benefit being that it allows RIM to capture lightening in a bottle twice. If a new GSM BlackBerry is a big hit you can pretty much be sure that the CDMA version will hit big as well. The problem, however, with this strategy is that your biggest GSM carrier becomes the flag ship carrier for the the hottest mobile device, well…ever and that device is not named BlackBerry.
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So, I was talking with an IT Guy who just finished up a project where he was looking to see if the iPhone was a viable alternative to using the BlackBerry at his company. Like many companies, he said that there are a ton of non-BlackBerry using folks that want to be able to get their email via the iPhone.
IT Guy said that he picked up on iPhone 3G the Sunday after they launched and knew before the following Monday morning that he wouldn’t be able to do anything more than allow web access to email as far are corporate applications go. IT guy said that he wouldn’t even be able to set up the email push which is now native to the iPhone.
IT Guy’s biggest concern… Security. His exact words were, “Apple knows everyone would be hacking these things and it seems like they didn’t even try when it comes to security”.
IT Guy said that he bought his iPhone 3G on Sunday morning and had the thing “jail broken” by Sunday night. Jail Breaking is the basically hacking your iPhone to allow it to do things that it wasn’t intended to do.
IT Guy asked me if I had ever heard of a jail broken BlackBerry. I said “no”, then he said “That’s why Apple won’t be moving in on their turf in the enterprise anytime soon.
Believe it or not, IT Guy said that he is going to hang on to his liberated iPhone 3G because it is cool to hack around with. He won’t be letting it anywhere near his corporate network though.
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I know that RIMarkable is a blog about BlackBerrys and that BlackBerrys dominate the discussion around here, however, I have to admit, I am a bit torn on whether to buy a new iPhone 3G or not.
As many of you know, I got the first iPhone day one, and, after the initial fascination with it faded, I completely lost interest in it, as did my daughter who couldn’t text without looking at the keys like she could on her Samsung. It was a cool cell phone, however, I had no interest in jailbreaking it and there really was no software for it.
The only thing that I thought that first iPhone was really good at was web browsing, and for me that was only over Wi-Fi, because Edge browsing is so slow. I no longer even have service on the device and it has been relegated to nothing more than a gadget used to watch movies on long airplane trips when I don’t feel like pulling out the laptop.
I wouldn’t say that I was burned by getting the iPhone because it is the coolest cell phone not named BlackBerry that I’ve ever owned. It didn’t, however, grab me in the way that the BlackBerry did way back when I switched from Windows Mobile.
I am hearing that the addition of 3G and the number of really cool applications that you can get on the iPhone may make it worth checking out. The $200 for the phone isn’t so bad, but, I don’t want to throw $1200 bucks away on a service plan that I don’t use.
There is no doubt that my BlackBerry will remain my primary device, so, do all the applications that you can run on the iPhone make it worth having as a second device? Maybe if I started an iPhone blog, writing about the iPhone everyday would make me use it.
I may stop by the Apple Store this weekend if it isn’t too crowded. We will see if all the iPhone hype grabs me like it did last year.
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I don’t think that there is any doubt that last weekend and probably this week, as far as the mobile industry goes, belong to Apple and the iPhone. I also believe that once the initial surge of everyone getting an iPhone simply because the iPhone is out passes, handset manufacturers not named Apple have a definite… finite…, but, definite window to capitalize on all of the buzz created by the iPhone 3G.
We know that there are consumers who either just don’t want an iPhone, or, are on some carrier other than AT&T and aren’t going to switch so that they could get an iPhone, but, all the iPhone buzz makes them want to get a new device too. My guess is that carriers other than AT&T are already starting to realize these consumers and it won’t be long before AT&T starts to notice them as well.
The big question for me is if the BlackBerry Bold will be out in time to realize these benefits of the iPhone buzz. We know that BlackBerry users overwhelmingly won’t be lured by the iPhone and will wait on the BlackBerry Bold no matter how long it takes for it to come out. I am wondering, however, if RIM and AT&T will release the Bold in time enough to capture the attention of the smartphone consumer with no allegiance that would actually compare multiple devices and weigh the pros and cons of each that initially came into the store to look at the iPhone 3G.
This worked for RIM last year with the BlackBerry Curve. Do you think that it will work again this year with the BlackBerry Bold?
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Apple to Research in Motion. “We’ve sacrificed a bit of quarterly profit to get some of your market share. Your move…”
Well RIM, what are you going to do? I don’t think too many people thought that Apple would release the iPhone 3G at a $199. iPhones are now as cheap as iPods. You’ve benefitted over the last year because of the original iPhone’s exceptionally high price point. Unexpectedly, that luxury is gone.
$200 bucks isn’t going to deter too many people who want an iPhone 3G from getting an iPhone 3G. I don’t think the BlackBerry Bold is the answer. I hope that the BlackBerry Thunder is the bomb and, If I were you, I would make sure that you don’t lock it down. Additionally, you might want to go ahead and officially announce the BlackBerry Thunder before everyone that potentially might buy one goes out and gets an iPhone 3G first.
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