You bring up a good point about the celebrities that use BlackBerrys. Cost really isn’t an issue for them so why don’t we see more of them using iPhones?

You can find pictures of famous people using BlackBerrys a dime a dozen, but, trust me when I tell you that pictures of famous iPhone users are hard to come by.

SMARTMONEY.COM: Techsmart: New iPhone Won’t Derail BlackBerry (DJ)

By Dan Burrows
Of SMARTMONEY.COM

(This article was originally published Tuesday)

THE SECOND COMING of the iPhone didn’t disappoint. As expected, Apple’s (AAPL) latest and
greatest gadget sports a 3G connection for faster web browsing, GPS and is slightly thinner at
the edges, among other goodies.
Also as expected, the iPhone 3G has enterprise support, meaning corporate users can employ
Microsoft’s (MSFT) Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to get push email, calendar and contacts. It
also has secure access to corporate networks thanks to software from Cisco Systems (CSCO) and
IT departments can remotely wipe it clean should it go missing in the wild.
At first glance all those features might sound uncomfortably close to what Research in
Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerrys do. Perhaps of more concern is that Steve Jobs & Co. slashed the
price on the iPhone 3G. Consumers and corporate users can now pick one up for as little as
$200.
That’s BlackBerry territory, too.
We have little doubt that Apple will succeed in making the iPhone a mass-market gadget that
also picks up some corporate users, but RIM needn’t fret. The company still has plenty of
critical advantages in the enterprise business and is playing smart defense with sexy phones
that should continue to grab consumers and retain loyal fanboys.
Most important, the smartphone market’s growing so rapidly that there’s plenty of pie for
both of them.
As buzz-worthy as the iPhone 3G is, it’s no BlackBerry, and it doesn’t try to be. It’s
probably best in class in a number of areas, including its operating system, media capabilities
and touchscreen technology.
Still, the phenomenal success of RIM’s BlackBerry Pearl and Curve models show that plenty of
consumers and business users still want a real keyboard. And when it comes to push email
BlackBerry Enterprise Server is still superior to Microsoft Exchange. (During Monday’s
presentation even Apple executive Philip Schiller referred to Microsoft’s ActiveSync as
“ActiveStink.”) And let’s not forget how entrenched RIM is in the enterprise world.
Meanwhile, it’s not as if RIM has been standing still waiting for Apple to steal its base.
The BlackBerry Bold, supposedly launching next month, isn’t just an iPhonish handset with a
“qwerty” keyboard. It should be a 3G beast with a high-resolution display, GPS, WiFi and lots
of other cool features.
Then there’s the BlackBerry Thunder, a touchscreen copycat of the iPhone rumored to be
available sometime in the third quarter. A touchscreen on a BlackBerry is a gamble but it seems
one well worth taking.
So although Apple’s likely to poach some civilian CrackBerry addicts and make some inroads
into enterprise, RIM is well positioned and the market’s got plenty of room for this
competition.
Worldwide smartphone sales grew nearly 30% in the seasonally slow first quarter to more than
32 million units, according to market researcher Gartner. In North America, sales more than
doubled. RIM itself more than doubled its unit sales and grew its market share to 13% from 8% a
year ago. The iPhone came from nowhere to claim 5% of the global market in the first quarter.
Not only is RIM more than holding its own, it turns out that this rivalry is not a zero-sum
game between BlackBerry and iPhone. Indeed, they’re both taking share from everyone else,
especially Nokia (NOK). Indeed, American Technology Research analyst Mark McKechnie downgraded
shares of Nokia to neutral from buy Monday over concern that the RIM and Apple onslaught of 3G
handsets could get ugly for the world’s biggest cellphone maker.
We’ll take it as pretty much a foregone conclusion that the faster, cheaper iPhone 3G will be
a huge success, but we doubt it will make RIM a punchline. If anything, the joke will be on
Nokia.
-For more information and analysis of companies and mutual funds, visit SmartMoney.com at
http://www.smartmoney.com‚/

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-11-08 0737ET
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Please refer to the WSJ Marketplace front page article yesterday regarding ATT’s profit regarding the new price. If you are more knowledgeable about ATT and its profits than their CEO, I’d be pretty shocked.

Did you miss the whole point of my article stating the purpose of the price IS to get people on ATT. That whole purpose would revolve around the monthly rates charged for an iphone plan. If you could have a phone with no future monthly charges, a company wouldn’t go out of its way for new customers which give no future profits but take up bandwidth.

And the whole buying a phone and not activating it with no ETF is luck for some people. Many people have been charged the ETF for doing that. The contract (which you sign upon purchase of the phone) was you paid full retail but HAVE to get an ATT plan for 2 years. That has been discussed many times before, so that knocks out that argument.

Then again you could say “go ahead do that, just never plug your iphone in again cause your phone will get wiped upon updating.” So now you have an outdated iphone, what’s that truly worth to anyone outside of Tmo (which is a small percentage of cell phone users)?

And how come Paris Hilton, the Kardashian sisters, Lohan, etc. all use BB’s? Why not iPhones? Space heads they may be, but BB’s is what we see. There’s your consumer base.

The mention of those people gives your post absolutely no credibility what so ever.

I think the key everyone here is missing is the new iphone price is subsidized. ATT will be losing money on every iphone sold.

Not really. Before, you could buy the iphone and not activate with AT&T in which case AT&’T got nothing. With the new 3G, there are no more on line sales with Apple, all iphones get activated before you leave the store, so at the very least AT&T gets you for 2 years or gets the ETF. Plus they are getting another $10 a month for the data, $15 if you want text messaging. So who’s losing out? Not AT&T.

If anything, most of those early adopters will just buy the new model of iPhone.

Early adopters are used to this phenomenon, and those who bought one generation of the iPod don’t switch when a newer, often less expensive version comes out.

bluehorseshoe makes a good point about celebrities and their BB’s. Obviously they love them for their email and messaging capabilities, which does say something about how important the core strength of the BB is to their sales. However, I also bet that these celebs also have an iPhone…when you are their wealth level, you probably have multiple phones and pretty much buy on whatever whim you want to.