RSSFunction is the key: Why BlackBerry rules
By Tim Conneally | Published May 5, 2009, 8:13 PM
From the workaday businessman to the President of the United States, for years, the American white-collar workforce has found itself choosing the Canadian BlackBerry. But after a recent period of aggressive marketing and promotion by Research in Motion which has coincided with a flare-up in consumer smartphone spending, the BlackBerry is also looking like the choice of the general populace.
As Verizon's exclusive entrant in the four-runner race of touchscreen smartphones, Research in Motion's BlackBerry Storm has proven to be a success among business and non-business users alike. RIM CEO Jim Balsillie has been widely quoted this week as saying, "That product was a huge success in terms of sales and adoption," adding that a next-generation device is on the Storm roadmap, off-handedly confirming rumors that began in April.
Even though more than half of RIM's 25 million subscribers now come from outside of the corporate sector, Balsillie said RIM views the consumer market as mostly untapped. So with the four dominant touchphones entering their second generation (numerous new Android devices, iPhone 3.0, Palm Pre, and now the "Storm 2"), the challenge for RIM is to extend the BlackBerry brand further into the general consumer population without alienating its original loyal base of enterprise power users.
"That's a tall order for any company to fill," independent analyst and Betanews contributor Carmi Levy told us Tuesday afternoon, "because it takes a very different set of core competencies to appeal to both of these target audiences. On the one hand, you're trying to reach regular folks who want to take their tunes and social media tools with them while they cart their kids to baseball practice. On the other hand, you're selling into businesses focused on keeping critical applications and data secure and accessible. That RIM has been able to reach these seemingly disparate audiences with one platform is nothing short of a masterstroke.
"RIM has managed to extend the BlackBerry brand into the consumer space without diluting its perceived robustness and security -- a key differentiator that has long set the company's offering apart from other smartphones," Levy continued. "In fact, for consumers who appreciate these things, having a BlackBerry has helped them justify using smartphones for things beyond basic messaging and contact/calendar management. The security of the BlackBerry platform makes online banking and other such functions an easier sell for consumers than it would be on competing, less robust devices and services."
According to an NPD market survey this week, three of the top five best-selling smartphones of 2009 were BlackBerrys (the other two devices were the iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile G1), and ChangeWave market surveys have consistently placed RIM at the top of the market, with recent data giving the BlackBerry maker a 41% share against Apple's 24%.
"RIM's decision to diversify its hardware offerings by targeting specific devices at specific markets has paid off," Levy said. "As popular as it is, Apple's iPhone proves that one form factor definitely does not fit everyone. The lack of an available physical keyboard is a deal-breaker for anyone -- business as well as consumer -- who needs to do a lot of text entry. RIM's strategy blankets a broader range of markets, ensuring each potential buyer has a choice of form factors that most likely fit the bill. As the iPhone platform matures, it'll have to sprout a number of physical alternatives to keep pace."
Where the iPhone has outshone all has been in its creation of a successful mobile application ecosystem, an area where Windows Mobile attempted to flourish, but never quite succeeded.
"Apple's iPhone has succeeded so enormously because its ecosystem -- the economy of applications, developers, solutions and services that now surround and support the device -- is so broad-reaching and vibrant. Apple has made it relatively easy for developers to build business models around creating and selling software through the App Store. RIM's App World validates this model and confirms the company's commitment to enhancing the value of the BlackBerry brand," stated Levy.
"As part of this effort, RIM has made significant investments in growing the size of the developer community. It will continue to pour resources into these initiatives, as a device is only as strong as the ecosystem that surrounds it. There's no reason to believe that continued focus on sober execution won't result in continued growth and competitiveness for RIM."
Please do keep in mind that the iPhone is ONLY available on one provider, and there's only one model. And I wouldn't call the Storm a "success".
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|i wont recomend blackberrys until they start supporting exchange active sync out of the box...
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|Yes Blackberry is the biz standard. As someone that builds and maintains these servers. I rather use a windows mobile phone. It connects to exchange without a server since it uses the web server for outlook web access we already have. Saves our company 5-10K a year.
Apple phone is a nice toy but how many times do I need to be told they couldn't take my call because the battery was dead or the call drops because it's on the ATT network?? Have a phone and have a iTouch as a toy..
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|My thoughts exactly. Our BES server and the nearly 3,000 handhelds make up a huge pain in the rear. We have a smaller, but growing population of windows Mobile users. This is such a better solution. The handsets take an occasional reset (like the BB) but the setup is easier. There are no additional servers on the back-end. It's just a good technical solution. Now Microsoft needs to make Windows Mobile 7 easier and flashier -- we live in the iphone era now. MS also needs to somehow keep phone makers and carriers from installing tons of junk. My AT&T Tilt (made by HTC) and Windows 6.1 as the OS, HTC loaded a ton of crap, then AT&T added theirs. By the time it got to me it was so loaded with crapware it was a confusing sluggish mess. I removed everything and it is now a pleasure to use.
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|I've owned and used WinMo devices both at home and at work in the past, and I'm always struck by how hostile they are to users. Looking up an address requires the patience of Job, and basic activities like sending messages or updating the task list require more steps in WinMo than on a BlackBerry device.
I appreciate the admin's perspective, though: WinMo plays nicely with Windows server and application environments. It's a one-vendor solution, which saves money and potentially streamlines monitoring and control.
But the market says at a device level, something built from the ground up to be mobile is generally preferable to something that was reduced in size from a full-on desktop paradigm. This at least partially explains why demand for WinMo is so weak relative to that for the BlackBerry.
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|get the SPB shell 3.0 and you will not have thiese problems anymore..
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|You can take the easy, cheap, route and possibly have "happy" users by omitting security completely by connecting to active-sync out of the box via the Internet,. or you can implement a BES and utilize a secure network. It depends on what you want. Personally, I really like the built-in stereo speakers and stereo bluetooth support of a blackberry bold for my music and Slacker Radio. But if I want want to buy on eBay or do some banking with my handset, I feel comfortable doing it on the bold as well, as I do my company email and calendar. If you never want to bank or buy via your handset, and your employer has no security policy around email, then by all means go with the iPhone. But personally, I prefer to carry just *one* device that does it all. Frankly, security architecture decisions shouldn't be left up to an end user who just wants to "play" around downloading games and music.
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|In the business world the BlackBerry has succeeded because of their enterprise software. The integration with Microsoft Exchange and the ability for the company to control the device remotely makes a huge difference. If someone in my company loses their BlackBerry, we can remotely erase the device. None of our important business info will be compromised.
If Apple would work on something similar, they would be able to get more business users to use it. I'm torn. I want a smart phone and would get the BlackBerry Storm, but since they only deal with Verizon and I'm on AT&T, I can't get one. Of course, I can get an iPhone. The problem is that I can't stand Apple and Steve Jobs. I guess I will have to consider and iPhone because I don't want to switch networks. Man, I hate to give Satan's spawn my money, but I do have to admit it is a nice device (the iPhone).
BTW, this my opinion and I don't really care what you think of it. Don't bother to reply because I probably won't see it. :)
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|The iPhone supports Exchange ActiveSync as of OS2.0. There are still some remote configuration features that BES has that you can't do with the iPhone but it will at least sync your mail, contacts and calendar and does it much smoother then WinMo or BB. You can also do a remote wipe with the iPhone via ActiveSync. I tested this once to see how it works. I is a secure erase so it took about an hour to wipe. At out company we have some a mix of BBs, WinMos and now iPhones. The end users are much more happy with the iPhone.
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|The App Store is the primary feature of the iPhone, really - the name is kinda poor for what the thing can do. This is highly ironic, since the Mac vs. Windows argument is that Windows has more developed programs. The lack of a real keyboard doesn't bother me (I actually prefer it in many cases), the utility is important.
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|There are actually tons of Windows Mobile apps. There have been for years. You just have to search for them. The nice thing that Apple did was create the store. It is a single place for all users to get apps. I guess apple gets a commission of each app sold.
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|Apple didn't just create a store for them, the plethora of apps on the iPhone are much wider than anything else on any mobile platform.
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|Only in terms of consumer apps (you guys have a farting app I heard? I am so envious!). The WinMo platform is used from military to POS with the consumer only a smaller fraction. I personally love the slider UI on WinMo 6, have everything I need from maps to email, contact, calendar sync plus an office suite (with keyboard) plus if I wanted to tons of games and junk.
Note to author: Listing the Pre as one of the 4 dominant and not WinMo (which has a 12.5% market share - 2nd after BB) is simply incompetent.
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|The only "junk" I miss from WinMo is MAME. :)
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