“The recent launch of Apple’s iPhone does not pose a threat to Research In Motion Ltd.’s consumer-geared BlackBerry Pearl and simply marks the entry of yet another competitor into the smartphone market, RIM’s co-chief executive said in an interview,” Wojtek Dabrowski reports for Reuters.
Dabrowski reports, “‘It’s kind of one more entrant into an already very busy space with lots of choice for consumers,’ Jim Balsillie said of Apple. ‘But in terms of a sort of a sea-change for BlackBerry, I would think that’s overstating it.'”
“Balsillie said the iPhone’s launch validates the thinking that multimedia features such as music should be expected in cellphones,” Dabrowski reports. “But while the Pearl received great response, some analysts questioned Apple’s decision to price its smartphone at a relatively steep $499 for the 4-gigabyte model. Cost has been a key obstacle in turning regular cellphone users into users of the more expensive handheld devices. The Pearl now sells at T-Mobile for $149.99.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s a reason why Balsillie needs a helper to be CEO of a company with a market value that’s but a third of Apple’s. There’s also a reason why Steve Jobs excelled as the sole CEO of not only Apple, but also of Pixar for years.
We’ll file Balsillie’s myopic comments away for future use; you know, for the day RIM announces restructuring, upon Balsillie’s announcement that he’s leaving RIM to “spend more time with his family,” when RIM transitions into an iPhone accessory-maker, that sort of thing.
Related articles:
Research in Motion downgraded due to Apple iPhone competition – January 23, 2007
Apple’s soon-to-be iPhone rivals sound just like iPod rivals circa 2001 – February 01, 2007
O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile battle for exclusive rights to Apple iPhone in UK – January 26, 2007
Rogers to offer Apple iPhone exclusively in Canada – January 25, 2007
FUD Alert: Apple iPhone ‘isn’t very practical’ and a ‘security risk’ for business – January 24, 2007
Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone – January 17, 2007
RealMoney: Apple just blew up the whole damn mobile-phone supply chain with its new iPhone – January 11, 2007
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
eWeek: Apple iPhone fallout: ‘They must be crying in Nokia-ville and other telephony towns today’ – January 10, 2007
Jefferies downgrades Motorola on fears of market share loss to Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
Time: ‘iPhone could crush cell phone market pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority’ – January 09, 2007
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
What a show when this thing is on the market. Heads will spin.
Hahahahaha. He will.
Of course it’s not a threat — yet. The “recent launch” hasn’t even happened.
“What a show when this thing is on the market. Heads will spin.” Hopefuly roll due to ignorance
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He didn’t see a threat from that multi hundred million dollar lawsuit he lost either.
Twit.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s a reason why Balsillie needs a helper to be CEO of a company with a market value that’s but a third of Apple’s. There’s also a reason why Steve Jobs excelled as the sole CEO of not only Apple, but also of Pixar for years. We’ll file Balsillie’s myopic comments away for future use; you know, for the day RIM announces restructuring, upon Balsillie’s announcement that he’s leaving RIM to “spend more time with his family,” when RIM transitions into an iPhone accessory-maker, that sort of thing.
Nani Take: It gets a little old reading MDN’s dismissive takes on every other tech company. Apple is great and Steve Jobs is a genius, but it’s not really neccessary to slam everyone else in the business every time they’re less than awed by Apple’s products.
I visit this site because it’s a good way to keep up on the latest Apple doings – but sometimes I have to laugh at the know all attitude of the ‘take’ writers. What’s MDN’s market value BTW?
yeah, the MP3 player makers didn’t see the iPod as a threat either.
dumbasses.
nani,
The truth sometimes stings. You must be new here. Go back through years of MDN Takes and you’ll find they’re right far more often than not.
Gotta go with Nani on this one. If there is a competitor out there RIM is it. For sure the iPhone will be a far superior product but the price differential will probably be a key factor. Apple will have to drop their price a little to eliminate RIM altogether in order to make MDN’s sarcastic comments a reality.
nani,
If you don’t like it, leave. But, if you own RIM shares, don’t forget to sell them soon – MDN is right on this one.
Nani,
You have to be kidding, right?
What I found most amusing is that a public company CEO would come out and dismiss a serious threat to their smartphones. Not only that, but he’s put his company at risk for an investor class-action lawsuit for this reassurance should it come back to haunt him.
It was completely irresponsible on the part of the CEO, IMO.
When RIMM finds themselves disappointing the street, just wait for the class-action lawyers to smell blood.
HAB
Watch as all the competitors bump their price up to match Apple vs. Apple lowering their price. They are so frigg’n jealous of Apple’s profit margin it’s unbelievable.
If you let your product become a commodity – then you deserve to go out of business.
mw: terms
as in, apple does it on their own terms.
What the hell else do you expect him to say?
“OH LAWDY, I’S SAW THAT MACWORLD KEYNOTE AND LIKEDED TA SHIT MYSELF!”
So, when my contract is up from Sprint, in almost 2 years now, hopefully I’m still alive then and hopefully the iPhones will be much better then, and cheaper as well!
Ah, all in good time….
I’m as big an Apple fan as anyone, but I think Balsillie is pretty close to on target with his take. Blackberry is entrenched as a technology in corporate and government America. The camera alone will kill in in a lot of companies and most of government. Without a hard keyboard it’s going to have problems, and if the Exchange support (and Notes and GroupWise support for that matter) isn’t killer, it’s tough to make a case for it in corporations.
As my personal consumer phone, there’s nothing I’d rather have. I just need to know way more about its capabilities than I do for me to say I’m ready to throw out the Blackberries. I hope its a player, but honestly, none of us knows yet.
Nani,
Got to agree with you! For the most part, MDN’s remarks are childish, repeative, and ignorant. But, I do like some of their humor.
That’s why he’s CO-CEO
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Jeff,
Read the article. Balsillie doesn’t see threat from Apple’s iPhone in the consumer market. MDN’s Take is dead on target.
It’s ugly.
I tried to find out how much memory it comes with and couldn’t find anything on RIM’s own website. It only says memory is ‘expandable’ and shows a picture of two cards (I GB and 512 MB) to EXPAND the memory!
It probably comes with 256 MB.
Of course you can keep the price down with those sort of specs.
Why don’t they give the technical details?
Maybe he should get glasses…
Nah. MDN says RIM is going to become an iPhone accessory maker and that simply isn’t happening. RIM sells a few phones in the consumer space and the vast majority to businesses. Apple’s market is 180 degrees removed. I still think Balsillie’s right, I don’t think Apple’s entry is going to impact RIM that dramatically even in the consumer space.
I wouldn’t want a Pearl as my consumer phone, but I’ve given them to execs here for personal use that I wouldn’t give iPhones to. It’s simply not the same kind of device. Media is a total afterthought to RIM, but it’s what makes the iPhone. I really think iPhones are going to impact LG Chocolates and the like way, way more than they’ll impact Pearls.
For those with the same thoughts as nani. Stop it.
At work we used to be tied to those darn blackberries. IMO BB’s suck! Really people, how many have tried to type (or ever used a bb) and found that the freaking keys are so small, you end up hitting more than one at the same time, unless you have the fingers of a sickly young girl.
The issue here is the software, I can’t believe people still don’t get it in this day and age!
The software in the blackberries is very awkward!
Mac OS X is usable and elegant, it is a pleasure to use it.
Apple has set the bar very high on usability and user friendlyness, unless the other companies come up with something just as likeable, they are in deep shit
Balsillie. The man’s name is Balsillie. B-A-L-S-I-L-L-I-E. ball… silly. Don I need to go further?
Nani:
You are right, but you are not going to change anything around here.
MDN = All Lord Jobs All The Time
Just because Apple decides to make a product, that does not mean that all competition will disappear. Sure, the iPod has the majority share in portable music players, but there was very little competition when they entered the market, and there are many reasons why the iPod is not like Apple’s other products, which MDN usually reminds people of when analysts try to compare the Mac to the iPod. HP isn’t going to go away. IBM isn’t going to go away. Bose isn’t going to go away. I believe Apple was the one to finally decide to make a two-button mouse instead of the rest of the industry adopting Apple’s one-button standard. Not all of Apple’s products are designed to destroy all the competition, and they are not intended to do so. RIM, like many other Apple compeititors, is not going anywhere.
I’m not afraid at all. Why do you ask?
MDN Macgic Word: not, as in: They will not admit to their growing terror.
Ok, no problem, mark that down as a no-threat to RIM, got it.
Sell your RIMM shares now!
Nani
think of all the mp3 players that said the same about the iPod. How many of them went right outta business? Pick lots.
So RIM markets to enterprise/ big business. What happens when a CEO tries and likes the iPhone, then tells the IT dept to make it work with company services. Talk about a top down effect…… It will only take a few big CEOs to want an iPhone and RIM could see a very substantial loss of sales and market share.
BTW, What did you want the Rim dude to say? “OMFinG, the iPhone is going to slaughter us! Lets close shop and give the money back to the stock holders.”
Not very likely. He HAS to present a calm, unruffled facade to keep confidence of the board of directors and shareholders. If it wasn’t for the dark brown suit, you could probably see that he is zunning himself at the thought of iPhones potential to disrupt and displace RIM.
MW = asked as in “whether you did or didn’t, thats my .02¢
My company requires me to use a Blackberry, mainly because RIM was bright enought to create an app that plugs into the Exchange server and pushes email to me when I am out of the office.
Good as iPhone might be, as long as it doesn’t have a RIM / Blackberry client, I won’t be retiring my Blackberry Pearl anytime soon. (I will be getting an iPhone for my personal use.)
The RIM and iPhone are completely different devices, different products, addressing different markets. In that sense they will not compete. Except, the iPhone is creating a new market on top of the existing market, and the iPod of the future will do the same, incorporating who knows what new features? RIM will survive just fine, but the people who work for companies are going to demand iPhones and they are going to get them, if they do what the RIM devices do and more. And let’s not forget, with no buttons to work, the software on the iPhone can be adjusted on the fly and as Mr. Jobs poined out in his presentation, as the software develops it can be used on the same old piece of hardware without having to add and subtract, relabel or whatever, buttons. Once people figure out how easy the thing is they will want one and those who can afford it, ie. millions of users, will buy one. The initial production run of 12 million won’t last long. As the thing get better, more memory or whatever, lower prices as costs come down as a function of volume, the iPhone market will get larger. And larger. So no immediate threat for RIM. Five years from now? It’s early days, but the excitement has yet to reach the masses. When it does, the murder rate will go up to deprive iPhone owners of their iPhones. So it is literally a KILLER APP. Steve is spot on. Again.
Yeah, yeah. Chinese car manufacturers aren’t posing any threat to European/North American corporations…
Although Jianglin Landwind actually poses threat to the driver. Crash in 60 km/h will kill you.
IF any of you have actually administered 300 Blackberries… you’d understand why the iPhone won’t make a dent in the corporate Blackberry device.
However, it will affect the Pearl… as like the iPhone, it is a consumer device.
Just because you don’t see the rain a-comin’ don’t mean it ain’t gonna rain!
Fine. Let all the business folks keep their BB’s and just “get an iPhone for personal use”.
What happens when they LOVE it?
Generation 2 is what happens.
For some reason people think that the whole shabang has to come in one big release. But that’s not how it works.
By the time the third generation of iPhone comes out every cell phone company and PDA company out there will be red-eyed from months of crying.
Seriously. They’re done for.
Mostly I love reading MDN’s take on the rest of the world. But the editor has gone a way overboard. An iPhone accessory maker? I will get an iPhone as my personal phone, but Apple is a long way from being a very useful business phone.
First of all, either the Blackberry Enterprise Server or the Exchange Server, push email, contacts and calendar information to handsets. As much as you all want to believe that Apple rules all, it does not rule the email market, and as such, the iPhone is rather weak. The security system that most companies have set up make it difficult for IMAP or POP to be used with an Exchange Server.
Can iPhone be used in an Exchange environment? Sure, because Entourage does, and it uses an HTML based system to pass information back and forth.
RIM and BlackBerry has this market segment wrapped up for today. I don’t even think Apple is looking at taking on RIM right now.
Apple will aggressively cut the price of the iPhone over the first 18 months of its release.
Does iPhone work with Exchange Server? If no, RIM is fine for the long haul. MDN meanwhile is as myopic as ever. Apple = good. Everyone else = idiot.
Posters don’t agree with MDN’s take.
I’m a little ‘verklempt’.
The topic is, “Is iPhone the ultimate Crackberry killer?”
Discuss amongst yourselves.
“The topic is, “Is iPhone the ultimate Crackberry killer?”
The answer is not yet. But, when Apple can get their prices down, it will be.
I too often find MDN’s editorials to be infantile and uninformed.
If you read enough of the editorials, you can tell that the editors are pseudo-intellects; they have comparatively shallow technical knowledge and frequently only parrot what has been written.
They reinforce the image that Macintosh enthusiasts are arrogant and ignorant.
The reason MDN is supposedly “right” all the time has nothing to do with its prognostications or technical reasoning. It has to do with Apple making largely good engineering/marketing decisions. However Apple also makes mistakes — and MDN have been poor at picking those out, given its fanboy mentality.
I am an long time Mac lover, but I am also a research scientist (a growing demographic in the Mac world). I use other platforms at work. I appreciate the Mac because I know HOW and WHY it is better or worse than other platforms. To date, however, I have never seen any MDN editorial giving a balanced analysis of the issues surrounding a news posting.
MDN would do much better to just post the news and keep the comments to a minimum.
You guys really do not understand Blackberries and why RIM sells so damn many of them. Hint: It’s not because they play MP3s and videos. They are meant to do one thing and they do it exceptionally well: E-mail. Unless the iPhone does what the Blackberry does, i.e., interface with Exchange, Notes and GroupWise servers and does it better than the Blackberry does it, it doesn’t matter how much Apple cuts the cost of the thing, it will not sell to the Blackberry audience. Period. Execs aren’t going to buy the thing to play MP3s, they want e-mail, they want their corporate address book synched, they want their corporate calendar synched.
Blackberry’s strength is the Blackberry Enterprise Server and the infrastructure that makes it all work. There’s none of that for the iPhone. There may be sometime in the future, but until then the Blackberry and the iPhone travel in different circles. They just aren’t competitive products. iPhone looks great and when I can get one from someone other than Cingular I’ll have one. But I won’t get rid of my Blackberry to get it.
I am perfectly happy with BOTH Apple and RIM succeeding…RIM is a small innovative company in a pleasant Canadian city…they have earned their success…rather them than Microsoft, right?
As with most business’ people, they tend to lag a bit in adoption of tech.
I see no difference here. When business or tech people view the iPod as an mp3 player or video player-do not realize the full extent of use of the iPod.
This is a major problem, I walk into a presentation with an iPod video in hand while others are slupping around a 17 inch laptops. When asked how I plan on doing the presentation-I just ask-Would you like to see it now or on the tv, projector, I can transfer to to your computer.
They have there mouth agap- the iPhone is far better of a business tool than most understand and a common problem with most business people.
I must agree with other on the rim issue- they will not and do not see the power in the device. Now or later.
he made a point with the price i think i love Mac
but 499 for a phone… is a little too much for me.
and i am waiting for the gps intergation…
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jan99:
“he made a point with the price i think i love Mac
but 499 for a phone… is a little too much for me.
and i am waiting for the gps intergation… “
It you see it as just a phone, you’d probably have a point. However, it’s a full featured iPod+phone+Web device with a MUCH better UI (something really overlooked by most people) than anything else out there. Take the iPod ($199) out and the device’s price would be comparable to every other smartphone currently coming to, or already on, the market.
Captain of the Titanic, “Iceberg, what iceberg?”
Another RIM advantage… Blackberries run on ALL national cell phone networks!!!!
The Verizon & Sprint Blackberries run on their national 3G networks…
Menawhile, the iPhone runs over the clearly second-rate Cingular network (just read Consumer Reports or JD Power ratins folks!)….
I LOVE Apple and have been using Macs since they were introduced and sold through the first college programs. But I won’t be rushing out to get one b/c of it being aattached to crappy Cingular…. More bars in more places… Yeah, only b/c they had the cell phone manufacturers add a 5th bar on the screens of the Cingular phones when everybody else only has 4!
I think the iPhone is a breakthrough product.. BUT the ONE THING that will hold the iPhone back is Cingular….
It’s great to have a full HTML web browser & e-mail client, but over pokey EDGE will suck (both Pogue & Mossberg pointed this out too folks)….
Even if Apple builds an iPhone for Cingular’s 3G network (which has MINIMAL national coverage) This nework is SLOWER than Sprint’s or Verizon’s 3G network, both of which are truly national.
For once, I think Apple is missing an even bigger opportunity than selling the iPhone to the consumer market. RIM has an advantage in that in order to use their service, you HAVE TO buy their server or link product. Apple could easily mimic this if they wanted to by selling xserves with an exchange/lotus pusher. Call it iLink, iPush, iMail or something.
Or, as Apple is partnering with Cingular, Good Technology could develop Goodlink (anyone who’s not familiar, Goodlink is another email push technology that links up with exchange or lotus notes for “smart” phones) for the iPhone’s OSX (here’s hoping Good Technology, Inc is listening). VOILA, instant RIM-killer. We use Good server to push out to Treo 650s here at my firm. The software is great. The Treos SUCK. Having an iPhone as an option would be AMAZING.
Partnering with Good would be an OUTSTANDING move for Apple. I’m not sure that Goodlink makes iPhone a BB killer, but it makes it usable to IT.
Mmm, yeah, BB killer might be overstating it a bit, but Good would make the iPhone more accessible for the business/IT world (Goodlink is gaining in market share v RIM/BB). Using the iPhone with Exchange’s IMAP feature doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies.
Borat for CEO of RIM
Damn glad RIM(job) is getting rid of that stupid wheel in favor of the roller ball. I HATED the side wheel on my old BB since it was SO awkward to keep double-clicking the damn thing. The iPhone is going to rock!
What is it with the names of these CEO’s?
Quack?
Ballsilly?
Have I wandered into a second-rate Kurt Vonegut novel?
The device has a TON of potential, but I’m afraid that it’s going to be a big yawn for the business user crowd folks. As much I wish that wasn’t the truth, it is. You can’t be a BB killer if you don’t offer the same functionality out of the box – heck if you don’t have THE primary feature of the BB, it’s a non-starter. I’m also appalled at the lack of 3G data network access for such a high-priced device…seems a really “cheap” way to go for such a supposedly high-end device.
Apple should be talking to the folks at GoodLink immediately about an iPhone port. Once that’s in there – then we can start making predictions about BB declines. Until then….no go on the business user front (which is a very LARGE segment of the market).
This isn’t to say the iPhone wont be a big hit…I think that it will be with home/personal users, it’s just that they have a very long way to go compete against BB…
Boom goes the dynamite.
Now onto cars…..
Now you know MDN was right….
RULE 1: Never under-estimate your opponent.
RULE 2: Never forget RULE 1…