The war is on between Apple and Research In Motion, the maker of the Blackberry, not only in the consumer market, but also in the business market, “where Apple’s making advances in fits and starts. Years ago, there were people sneaking a new gadget into the office called a PalmPilot. The same people are sneaking in their iPhones, and eventually Apple’s going to have to figure out a way to make nice with Microsoft Outlook without making the heads spin in the corporate IT department,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek.
Hesseldahl reports, “Now take a look at the Blackberry 9000, a heavily rumored device that looks an awful lot like an iPhone… The battle is underway, and actually has been for some time. Apple and RIM are in for a real donnybrook in 2008,” Hesseldahl reports.
MacDailyNews Take: The Boy Genius Report has some rumored specs and a product photo of the Blackberry 9000 here, which so far looks like YAiR (Yet Another iPhone Ripoff).
Hesseldahl continues, “Apple’s advantage is media. It has iTunes and music and video behind it, which RIM doesn’t do all that well, at least not yet. RIM’s advantage is its established relationships with corporate IT departments, and with many many carriers.”
Hesseldahl writes, “I for once can’t wait to see Apple’s iPhone sales numbers for its Q1 2008, because that will set the tone for the rest of the year, and if they’re high enough, could put RIM on the defensive.”
Full article here.
Carl Howe writes for Blackfriars’ Marketing, “If Apple actually will sell 5 million units by MacWorld AND it keeps up its aggressive deployments AND it makes no serious missteps with new products (like its 3G iPhone), the iPhone could pass the Blackberry to become the best-selling smartphone on the planet in 2008, and possibly the most rapidly adopted phone in the world. Not bad for an entry product in a market that most pundits claimed was impossible for a new manufacturer to enter.”
Full article here.
While Apple and RIM could very well be ready to fight it out, just imagine if they partnered! By combining their strengths, they could run through the mobile device market like two bulls in a china shop. Either way, Nokia, Palm, Microsoft Windows Mobile-based device makers, Motorola, and others look to be in for a world of hurt in 2008.
Basically, Apple is enemies with everyone.
Or Outlook (Microsoft) will eventually have to figure out how to work with the iPhone. I would rather see Apple nibble away at the edges then have Microsoft collapse when the world discovers that inside their is a rotten core.
I’m rooting for RIM, at least they don’t tie you to one network to maximize their profits.
all these companies got in bed with MicrosH*t and now
Apple is running circle around them.
You can’t just start a company and gain 30 years experience
Apple has worked very hard to get where they are, what people are afraid of is facing the truth. Apple is just getting started.
The next few years are just going to blow away the stuck in the mud window/ poor design/ poor software etc.
APPLE OS X GO STEVE!!!!
Make love not war.
Visualize whirrled peas.
Imagine all the people… living life with an iPhone!
Apple is the noisy kid in the back of the class. Part genius, part smart ass. The kid everyone knows, everyone knows is smart, but they love to pick fights with… I think they should get ready for some WHOOP ASS!
Just buy RIM and get it over with! That will give Apple the corporate market and then some.
Unlike other tech companies, RIM is lean and relatively problem free, with a thing or two that Apple could actually use and some decent engineers.
These phone guys thought it impossible for a non-phone tech company to just walk in the door. That of course ignores decades of working out brilliant UI’s and lovable products.
I’d still like to see Apple take on the rest of the consumer electronics world, one great product at a time: TVs, cameras, receivers, etc… Then there is the business space with copiers, faxes, phone systems, and so on.
My Christmas wish is for Apple would make a phone for T-Mobile in the USA: uh, for sale in early 2008!
I agree with MDNs take. RIM isn’t the enemy. They are an innovative and successful company who should be admired and not admonished for their accomplishments. I think a collaborative alliance between Apple and RIM would be very interesting. Let’s make some new friends. After all, we know who the real enemy is, don’t we.
Troy,
Beware of Greeks (or Canadians) bearing gifts.
Let’s look at some numbers:
RIM sold 3.9 Million devices in their last quarter. Of this number, only 1.65 were to new subscribers. Their device is available in many more countries than the iPhone is. The current estimates for the iPhone is 3 Million units, and that’s in only four countries in the world!! All 3 Million will be to new subscribers. In 2008, Apple could take over the position as leading smart phone vendor in the world.
@Investor:
Good one!
However, the RIM advantage has always been corporate integration. So the vast majority of RIM sales go to businesses, whereas the vast majority (nearly all) iPhone sales are to consumers. So the overlap, and there is one, is relatively limited.
It is true that Apple does not need the corporate sector to be the leading smart phone vendor, but it seems to me to be a shame to waste the opportunity to take both sectors when what is seems to be required is just the lousy Exchange (and maybe Lotus) integration.
A bit of push-mail and networked calendaring can go a long way. And once the SDK is out, business applications that could eliminate the need for some laptops and other portables/POS/kiosks etc. would basically mean Apple iPhone could be the equivalent of MS Windows (in its OS domination) in the corporate smart phone business.
Would be nice to see a merger. Then the Blackberry Enterprise server could run on a nice Xserve!
Corporate America won’t adopt the iPhone even if it was compatible with the servers and programs.
It’s the fact that Apple over-charges for everything.
For instance, a little USB charger for the iPod is a whopping $40, which only costs a few dollars to make in China. Don’t even ask how much the little charger stand is.
A crappy sounding iPod Hi-Fi which is nothing more than a simple stereo, ran into the hundreds of dollars.
Glossy screen desktops can’t be used because it causes lawsuits against businesses by employees.
The iPhone? It actually costs $1480 with the two year contract, (the price of a MacBook without the features of one). One has to get their iPhone unlocked in order to get the real price of $399.
Corporate America is not Las Vegas, where people are old/bored and go to blow all their disposable income on entertainment.
Corporate America exists to provide people’s needs, jobs and make investors a profit. The numbers have to work.
With Apple it’s all about soaking the consumer, corporate america doesn’t go for that.
@Rising star:
“The iPhone? It actually costs $1480 with the two year contract, (the price of a MacBook without the features of one). One has to get their iPhone unlocked in order to get the real price of $399.”
Horseshit! Please include cost of service plans for all smartphones over the same time period. BEFORE trotting out that tired old POS FUD. What a totally useless statement.
Bloody f-tard!
It took TWO AND A HALF YEARS of Apple development to come up with the iPhone…
Copying it is NOTHING to do with the external appearance..it is to do with it’s internals.
And neither RIM nor anyone else are going to come up with any comparable solution this side of 2010.
But we will enjoy watching their panic stricken efforts…
I saw crush RIM. I hate my blackberry. Can’t wait to buy an iPhone. IT will have to work with the iPhone sooner or later.
Rising Star,
“Corporate America exists to provide people’s needs, jobs and make investors a profit.”
That was hilarious! Please post more comments like this. The world can use all the humor it can get.
“people’s needs, jobs …. ” AaaHaaaahaaahaaa !!! Yer killin’ me !!!
Apple should leave iPhone/Exchange (and maybe Lotus) integration to third parties. Apple builds it in, Microsoft breaks it every other patch Tuesday.
Another reason to leave the situation as it is is that forward looking companies will be working with Apple kit and not the dinosaurs, leave them shackled to Microsoft.
No serious IT department will ever allow iPhones in the company. Its either BB and their servers or ActiveSync. I hate to say it, if iPhone cannot support either one of these, it will never gain significant share in the business/corporate world. Making it a pain for users to keep carrying two devices, which I currently do now, and just like the AT&T;CEO.
Apple doesn’t partner, even with its own developers. AAPL will nuke RIMM in 2008.
Blackberry Connect running on an iPhone is a win/win. There’s no reason for Apple to want to nuke RIM. They’re not in the same market, and RIM can help Apple get into enterprises with seamless integration to BES servers. RIM can be Apple’s best friend and they’re ABSOLUTELY not an enemy, so let’s not be so anxious to nuke anybody.
I vote for war, not peace. Apple will eat RIMM’s lunch. Those IT jackasses who stand in the way will learn to ask, “Do you want fries with that?”
@ Jubei:
I’m optimistic about how the corporate situation is going to play out.
While it’s very true that IT departments are not enthusiastic about supporting iPhones now, that’s not indicative of the future. They weren’t enthusiastic about supporting Palm Pilots or Blackberries when they first arrived either, but eventually they didn’t have a choice except to integrate them.
All it would take is for an executive high enough in a company (C-suite is probably the best bet) to say “Make this work. Now.” No IT department is going to tell a CEO or CFO or COO that they can’t have the device they want. Eventually IT departments won’t have a choice, and they’ll come kicking and screaming into the present (until the next big thing comes out and then they’ll kick and scream about that until they’re backed into a corner).
IT departments are the new car mechanics: they try to tell you whatever is convenient for them, hoping you won’t know enough about what they’re talking about to challenge them. Except they take it a level beyond that by also telling you which car you’re allowed to drive and where you’re allowed to drive it. They’re insufferable.
LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon,
All right, is that you G.W.?
Dammit man! RIM is a Canadian company. NOT IRANIAN !!!