By SteveJack
Engadget Mobile has some shots of the much-ballyhooed RIM Blackberry 9000 “in the wild.”
Uh oh, RIM shareholders. If this is all RIM’s got, you guys and gals might want to quickly add “former” ahead of that suddenly scary “RIM shareholders” business. It’s now painfully obvious that RIM has learned nothing in the past 15 or so months since Apple unveiled the iPhone.
RIM clearly seems to have tried to copy Apple’s iPhone exterior look, but beyond that derivative bit of attempted tomfoolery, the anachronistic physical buttons remain, taking up tons of space whether or not they’re in use. Also remaining is the small screen, mashed into the upper half of the device in order to make room for those tiny, slippery-looking plastic buttons festooned all over the bottom half of the device.
The software’s UI has been prettied or messed up (depending on your taste), but it has none of the multi-touch goodness of Apple’s iPhone. It’s the same old, same old in an iPhone-inspired wrapper. And that should fail to inspire much confidence in RIM.
You can judge the distance behind and overall cluelessness of iPhone’s future roadkill by the amount they copy the iPhone’s exterior. See: LG, HTC, and now RIM, among many others. This ceaseless quest to dress up antiques in Apple veneer is pathetic and sad (e.g. Windows Vista).
If even I, iPhone Owner From Day One, expected a bit more from RIM, and I did, then those who expected RIM’s BlackBerry 9000 to be the company’s answer to Apple’s iPhone are in for a shocking and disheartening disappointment.
RIM, like Microsoft’s Windows, will continue to run on fumes for awhile, but if they fail to fuel up (innovate) they will eventually stop rolling. And RIM has but a fraction of Microsoft’s entrenchment.
What do I predict for RIM? In the immortal words of James “Clubber” Lang: “Pain.”
See Engadget Mobile’s gallery of BlackBerry 9000 photos here.
RIM BlackBerry 9000 User Interface:
Direct link via YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee-DepnxJW4
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Nick” for the heads up.]
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
Comical. This guy just doesn’t get it. Stick to Apple commentary and forget about stock predictions. RIM shareholders will not feel pain, but pleasure. The market is TOO BIG and growing TOO QUICKLY for just one company to succeed. iPhone will kill it, no doubt, but so will RIM. This just isn’t simply a binary result, one or the other. Both can grow massively as the smartphone adoption curve kicks in over the next few years. April 2nd will be the first indication when RIM reports earnings. I wonder if MDN will carry the following headline: “Beleaguered RIM posts over 100% revenue and earnings growth.” Flame away…
One word: Pathetic…
Crazylegs,
It’s next April, not this April, that RIM and their shareholders need to be worried about.
iPhone SDK, Exchange support, iPhone 2.0 software, 3G next-gen iPhone – all coming starting in June.
SteveJack is right, as usual.
The full keyboard is to “iPhone-killers” what the FM tuner was to “iPod-killers”.
——RM
@crazylegs
I am afraid you are in for a rude awakening soon enough. After Palm and Motorola, Nokia and RIM will be the next blood on Apple’s iPhone touch screen.
WHO ARE YOU REALLY, STEVEJACK?!?!?!
ChrissyOne,
That’s a good question. Who do you think SteveJack is?
It looks like it is running Leopard. Whacky!
Crazylegs,
Thanks for an intelligent comment. Once in a while, it’s nice to read one.
Interesting that the endgadget reveiw was much more positive than Steve Jack’s. I think Rim’s cutomers and shareholders will remain very pleased (Currently, I own Apple stock, not Rim’s).
I think RIM is probably the second best mobile outfit out there at the moment. Moto is spinning off, Nokia is uninspiring, everyone else is enslaved to Windows Mobile, which is never going anywhere. RIM is at least making an attempt at getting their act together, but they have the inertia of a huge installed base and more than a little hubris, though that is starting to wear off.
Now what might be interesting is if Apple licenses the iPhone OS and its multi-touch patents. It’s pretty clear that no one can come up with a good touch interface, even thought they’ve have well over a year to copy Apple’s. Remember what a Bad Idea it was for Apple to announce 6 months before release? The Competition Will Catch Up! they said.
This is all ya got?
Color me Not Terribly Impressed.
Who do you think SteveJack is?
Steve Jobs.
@ Fred Mertz
I have no idea. Funny how we’ve all been posting on this site for years and we don’t know anything about the authors. I think the rough correlation between the rise of MDN and the complete disappearance of Jack Miller from AtAT was interesting.
Looks like an iPhone + keyboard. A missing keyboard is one of the things that irks some people about the iPhone.
ChrissyOne,
I liked your idea from last November:
I think it’s a gestalt entity, created by crossing DNA from Steve Jobs and Jack Miller in a lab deep in the mountains of Buenos Aries. This “SteveJack” is nothing more than a grey, throbbing brain, resting in a pan of warm honey, attached with electrodes to a bank of X-Serves and plugged in to the world wide web. He may even have WiFi. From there, “SteveJack” plots the worldwide gangster computer-god living-death slavery takeover of the world’s Windows user’s identities and credit history, controlling their minds and making them buy iPods and computers with shiny screens. What an evil genius!!!
…or he might just be one guy who works at Kinney Shoes. Hard to say which.
Still makes me laugh!
Name,
Quantify “some.”
@Name,
That “some” sum isn’t nearly enough to benefit RIM.
@ Fred Mertz
Every time a shoe salesman eyeballs me…
…I wonder.
ChrissyOne,
LOL!
My iPhone isn’t missing a keyboard. It pops up exactly when I need it, as if by magic.
I don’t know if I really want to see pictures of a rim leaking blackberrys…..
Its all in the operating system, plain and simple. Fools who are happy with RIM’s appliance can be happier knowing that when they walk fast, people will think they have an iPhone.
@ TT
eeeeeeeeeeew.
“Fools who are happy with RIM’s appliance…”
{shudder} That sentence just can’t go anywhere good after that.
RIM is utterly screwed. They are trying to whistle their way past the graveyard, but the iPhone will destroy them.
The iPhone is like the Alien incubus in RIM’s belly. Dinner time is coming and the iPhone is about to burst out. Bon Appétit.
It’s a sad-looking thing. The consensus is correct – this is a company that has run out of ideas.
“It looks like it is running Leopard.”
My thoughts exactly! It even seems to have a dock.
RIM doesn’t need to inspire confidence in the Blackberry. Their millions and millions and millions of users already have that.
Seriously, RIM is OK. They’re not going anywhere, nor should you wish for that. Not everyone who isn’t Apple is the enemy. Grow up, the lot of you.
@ Crazy Legs,
You are right in that the market is too large and growing too quickly for there to be just one company that succeeds, while all others fail.
However, RIM doesn’t need to be blasted into extinction in order to taste the bitter pain of failure. This latest offering, which appears to be the same old blackberry in a new suit of clothes, demonstrates that RIM is currently not interested in innovating or evolving to embrace new technologies. Any company that does this will surely loose it’s status amongst the top of the heap. No company is immune from this truth… if you want to be on top and stay there you MUST continue to push the envelope, or be prepared to be left behind.
So no, RIM won’t go anywhere for some time to come… but, if they continue on their present course, the will see the eroding of their fortunes, and if they still refuse to adapt, then they very well may die.
What do I predict for RIM? In the immortal words of James “Clubber” Lang: “Pain.”
Steve Jobs does have the eye of the Tiger.
@ Broker – did you read my post? You must have, but it did not sink in. My point is that the market is too big and more than one platform will prosper. Let’s look at facts:
1. Smartphone sales globally in 2007 were roughly 130 million units.
2. Growth rate of smartphones is roughly 30% per year (compared to overall market of just under 10%)
3. Smartphone sales in 2008 will be roughly 160-170 mln units.
3. iPhone will sell at least 10 mln units in CY 2008.
4. BB will sell 18-20 mln units in CY 2008.
5. Global mkt share in 2008 for iPhone will be under 10%, for BB just over 10%.
Still tons of room for BOTH to grow massively. My holdings in each company are roughly equal, but over the last 2 years, RIMM has killed AAPL in performance (RIMM up 300%, AAPL up 130%) and I bet it continues. Can’t wait until next April when both stocks are materially higher…
‘My iPhone isn’t missing a keyboard. It pops up exactly when I need it, as if by magic.”
__________
Exactly, that is the beauty of the iPhone.
However, as much as I like the ability to make the keyboard disappear when not needed, I do think there is something to be said for the tactile feel of a keypad. Sure, i know, i know, you can type just as fast on an iPhone as other devices, and honestly, I do much prefer the other benefits of having a full touch screen. But I wont deny that i do miss that real feel of buttons when typing.
“WHO ARE YOU REALLY, STEVEJACK?!?!?!”
I don’t know him. I’ve never seen or met him. I’ve never been in the same room with him. Wait a minute……..
@Crazylegs,
I’ve been saying the same thing, too – the iPhone will lead to a greater smartphone adoption rate, which will benefit both Apple and RIM. The market will probably shake out like the mp3 market with the iPhone and the Blackberry being the dominant players. I just wonder how long it will take before Apple sells more iPhones per quarter than RIM sells Blackberrys? It will be a LONG time until there are more iPhones in use than Blackberrys.
Reminds me of the old days, when transparent, fruit-flavored enclosures suddenly became all the rage after the introduction of the iMac G3. If RIM thinks that all it takes to compete with the iPhone is a bit of chrome and some jazzy wallpaper, they are sadly mistaken.
@ Willie G
RIM is just playing MS’s game, circa 1990’s. Spend as little as you can and go high volume. Great way to cash in on a commoditized market that you own, but not a very defensive strategy when there are other strong competitors in it. For defense, you have to have big pockets to buy out or vilify your competition (*ahem*) and a strong presence in the back room. RIM has some of this, but not as much as MS did to get where they are.
The problem with RIM and Windows Mobile is that they’re still trying to stuff a desktop computer into a phone, and they just don’t seem to realize that they have an opportunity to create something new and better suited to a pocket device. They’ll make plenty of money doing it, but they can’t turn back the clock. MS achieved near complete market dominance in a computer-unsavvy world. These days the bar is significantly higher.
I wont be buying this – the screen is too small and there are buttons on the phone.
Nice try at copying Apples style, but no sale from my business and it’s 100 employees.
We’ll stick with our iphones.
…the iPhone will lead to a greater smartphone adoption rate, which will benefit both Apple and RIM. –Cubert
The increasing popularity of smartphones will benefit both Apple and whoever has the chops to actually take on the challenge of competing with the company (Apple) that is currently blowing the competition away. It may be RIM that succeeds in this endeavor, or it may be some other handset maker. Regardless of who wins the contest, customers benefit. Customers do not benefit when companies trot out the same old products, season after season, sporting nothing more than a new coat of paint.
@ alansky
You know you’ve hit the big time when you get your own
” rel=”nofollow”>a ‘pod’ now.
the iPhone already has amazing success considering it’s limited accessibility. It’s entering new markets and crazy exciting software is coming out this year via SDK. This phone has it’s best days ahead of it. Not to imply RIM will shutter it’s doors but as someone above said the pressure will be on. They’ll be feeling the pain.
Since owning my iPhone not once has the thought of “I wish it had a keypad” ever came into my mind.
Just goes to show, somethings you may think you need but in reality you never miss it.
A classic example of fantastic design and intuitive user experience.
It’s a iPhone with a real keyboard!!
There are some people who really text a lot and need the advantage of two finger typing.
Now if Apple would allow a third party keyboard plug-in option to the iPhone…
…or perhaps a stylus?
…and a pair of reading glasss to see the small screen?
The iPhone is not perfect, nether is this new BUNGBERRY!!!
Hahhahaha fooled you!!!
@ Petey
I never had a smartphone with a keypad, so I’ll never know. But I certainly don’t wonder.
That said, there is value to tactile feedback. I like to have a regular iPod in my car (as opposed to a touch screen), because I can feel the touchwheel and navigate without looking at it. The benefits of a touch screen on the iPhone VASTLY outweigh this for my needs, but it would still be nice to have. Ideally some sort of touch feedback should be engineered into the design, and I know Apple and others are working on this. But if it never comes… ah.. no big deal.
@ RE: the Rim Appliance
“Your friend didn’t realize that here in East Germany we use 220 Volts current. He was found in his hotel room impaled on a large electrical device. Our surgeon did what they could but it took them 2 hours just to get the smile off his face.”
ChrissyOne,
http://code.google.com/p/iphone-haptics/
*GREAT* link. Thanks!
I wonder if they could use something like ultrasonic vibrations to create a sense of texture to the screen. Like a virtual braille. Then you could feel around for controls before you actually press them.
Which brings up another problem – ‘The Next Major Computing Platform’ seems poised to really piss off blind people.
I bet Roddenberry has this all worked out somewhere…
How is it any different from before? Who’s gonna want to play games on that thing? Who’s gonna wanna surf the web? Browse photos? Watch movies? Read maps? Books? Show patients what their medication looks like? Sign for a package? Who’s gonna wanna develop for that thing?
When presented with the iPhone as an alternative, no one.
We don’t know what RIM is working on now as far as a device with a worthwhile screen, but I doubt that with the lack of the ecosystem Apple builds around their products that it will be able to compete with Apple who went from no phone to best phone just like that.
People forget that when the iPod came out, it was Mac only. Making it a PC device as well gave it wings. This latest SDK gave iPhone it’s wings.
Oh dear, why do the gormless suits in all these companies order their “designers” to knock off the competition with a me-too???
Pathetic. RIM deserves to belly-up on this.
And it doesn’t even run OSX either
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I wouldn’t write RIM off yet folks. This thing has stopgap written all over it. I bet it’ll sell like mad.
I hope their follow up is kick ass. iPhone needs some serious competition or it’ll stagnate.
Have you noticed how many comments have been posted for one single subject. We know no one will buy it. Who is SteveJack?
Have you looked closely at Engadget mobile’s photo gallery?
RIM’s BlackBerry 9000 has Pong!
Game over!
Buy RIMM!
LordRobin: “The full keyboard is to “iPhone-killers” what the FM tuner was to “iPod-killers”
Well said.
Overall, I have to agree with the sentiment that there is enough space in the expanding “smartphone” market to allow both RIM products and iPhone to expand.
Is a viable competitor in a space that Apple competes in all that hard to imagine?
RIM’s Blackberry has many, many fanbois and fangrls.
Blackberry is all about the e-mail management. Something iPhone 1.0 cannot match. We have hopes for iPhone 2.0
Apple is the new kid on the block. It’s not RIM that’s competing with Apple per se, it’s the other way around. Yet Apple has all the attention, the momentum, and apparently, the secret sauce to boot.
Anyone still using their Handspring? While Palm absorbed them and they kind of live on in that i’m-not-here-exactly-but-i’m-here-in-spirit kind-of-way, the company is gone. Business landscapes change rapidly. large companies can often fall very quickly when a surprise amount of pressure is applied. It costs a lot to keep big companies growing. That’s why Steve’s restraint in growing Apple’s ranks is a great thing. It’s slow, stable, and methodical. I’m not too sure what’s gone on at RIM, but I do know they’ve been very successful. Hopefully they’re managed well, too, or despite their devices, they’ll be no long term competitor.
LordRobin: “The full keyboard is to “iPhone-killers” what the FM tuner was to “iPod-killers”
That’s not a very accurate analogy. If you want to type fast you need a keyboard with tactile feedback (a “real keyboard”).
I know there’s third party software on jailbroken iPhones that simulates tactile feedback for the touchscreen. I have not tried it so I can’t say. Hopefully, it’ll be brought over to the itunes app store or apple will release a software update offering a similar feature…
Personally though, my ideal cell phone would be a device implanted under my skin that’s voice controlled. Go beyond touchscreen and keyboards and just tell your phone what to do…
The blackberry users will be satisfied with the 9000, because it’ll be “good enough”. It’s the same rationale Windows users use.
Personally, I think Nokia and Blackberry will do fine. Moto and Palm are done. Samsung, LG and SonyEricsson are the ones that need to work on their strategy.
” A missing keyboard is one of the things that irks some people about the iPhone.”
Some people. It’s pronounced “ahh-mish.”
“<strike>RIM</strike> Microsoft doesn’t need to inspire confidence in <strike>the Blackberry</strike> Windows. Their millions and millions and millions of users already have that.
Seriously, <strike>RIM</strike> Microsoft is OK. They’re not going anywhere, nor should you wish for that. Not everyone who isn’t Apple is the enemy. Grow up, <strike>the lot of you</strike> scary reflection in my mirror.
I don’t own an iPhone but I do have a iPod touch. I get all the “touch feedback” or tactile response I need when my finger hits the key board. It also makes a little click. I’ve been typing since the manual typewriter days and it’s not a problem. The clean lines without the little plastic keys is really appealing. When T-Mobile gets a iPhone I’m all over it.
looks like a derrier-ivative to me
Blackberry eh?
Lol….
OMG! Did i see a keyboard on that fugly and so yesterday RIM phone???
Stupid is as stupid does!
I had a Treo and since moving to the iPhone I miss nothing from that crash-prone excuse for a smartphone. Including the fixed keys keyboard.
This relatively ling message was typed from my iPhone something that would have been fairly difficult to do on the Treo since MDN is basically unreadable in their web browsers.
RIM = DOS
Apple = State of the Art
@Kizzuwatna
Comparing RIM to MS doesn’t make any sense. MS is pure evil (anticompetitive etc) and makes a crappy product either because of ineptitude or because they feel they don’t need to make a good. People use Windows because that’s what comes installed by default on all non-Apple computers in the world. It’s just what comes out of the tap so to speak. No one chooses to use Windows unless they’re masochists. And some people feel it’s the only choice So the only thing carrying Windows is momentum. The moment you give people an opportunity to switch to OS X, people pick OS X (unless they’re masochists). As proof of this Apple’s market share has exploded ever since people starting becoming more aware of Macs. Momentum can only carry you so far.
RIM isn’t being carried by momentum. Consumers aren’t locked into the blackberry like they are with windows. There are, literally, several thousand choices the consumer can make when it comes to getting a cellphone. The fact that RIM has done so well is because of whatever merits the Black Berry has. People choose to use it. The fact that it’s nicknamed the crack-berry shows a lot of people really like it and think it’s a good product. So getting black berry users to switch is going to be harder than getting Windows users to switch to Macs in one way.
Now, what will really make the iPhone big will be the iTunes app store. There’s not a lot of applications for all the mobile devices out there. If the iPhone can get a rich developer community than it will stop being just a phone and become the world’s first true full featured hand held computer (something all smart phones have attempted).
@ Scheduler
I knew someone would say exactly what you said about games, movies and music in the workplace, and it’s really funny because you didn’t grasp what I was saying. This is about one device that can do many things. It’s play when it needs to be play, and work when it needs to be work. It isn’t two devices that you need to carry around (as you do), and it has functionality beyond play (yes, functionailty for business beyond what the “BB” can do, especially in medical and service/marketing based businesses). So unless you’re advocating that the tactical feel is worth hundreds of dollars and paying service on an extra device, I didn’t hear anything you said except that you own an iPhone.
The web is both good and bad in the workplace.
Do you leave it out of the workplace?
@ Ray
Who’s going to buy their employees an iPhone if a blackberry is good enough though? Especially if it’s easier to type on the blackberry.
Ray said
“I knew someone would say exactly what you said about games, movies and music in the workplace, and it’s really funny because you didn’t grasp what I was saying. ”
This is irrelevant to both the iPhone and Blackberry. If you’re going to goof around and waste time it doesn’t matter what cell phone/smart phone you have. This depends more on the person.
Ray said
“So unless you’re advocating that the tactical feel is worth hundreds of dollars and paying service on an extra device, I didn’t hear anything you said except that you own an iPhone.”
That’s what he said. And I agree. The iPhone is great for multimedia stuff and for the medical field as a small tablet, and for web browsing in general…but for typing fast it isn’t as good as a phone with a tactile keyboard. This is what people buy the black berry for. It’s good for sending/receiving emails/messages from anywhere as quickly as possible and that’s what it’s primarily designed to excel at. It’s not a multimedia phone.
I don’t forsee the iPhone eating away at RIM’s market share. But I do foresee the iPhone becoming the most popular smart phone on the market. People who wouldn’t normally buy a smart phone will buy the iPhone, because it’s the first multimedia phone that actually works.
You guys are missing the point, that enterprise customers will be able to control what software is on the phone in the first place.
I am a little ambivalent about RIM not doing too well as it is a successful Canadian company that was highly innovative in its time. I would hope that Apple and RIM dominate (as they do now) but both stay in business to challenge each other so we will enjoy new advancements down the road as a reslt.
@ K
I understand what you’re saying. Remember though, the iPhone does what the Blackberry does, but uh, a lot more. So it really boils down to this; does tactical feel (not the ability to type which you can do on both, not even the ability to type fast which you can do on both, just the feel) beat custom business software? Does it beat enjoyability? If businessmen are given an option over which phone to choose, which do you think they’ll go for? The keyboard in their pocket, or the computer in their pocket? The email experience in their pocket, or the internet experience in their pocket?
@ Buster
“… but both stay in business to challenge each other so we will enjoy new advancements down the road as a reslt.”
I love it when you speak Canadian.
{swoon}
I have never read an article with so much fan-boyism in it. Yes, the iPhone is cool, but I fail to see how RIM is “copying the iPhone” with this FIRST of next iteration devices.
RIM currently host almost 50% of the smartphone market here in the US and the iPhone is in the high 20% at last check. Seems like it’s the iPhone that’s got some catching up to do not RIM.
If you’re going to write an article that tears a competing product apart, at least try to do it with research and numbers, not simply “well are stuff is better” because really it might be “better” to you, but to those hundreds of thousands of 50+ C-Level executives that don’t understand the iPhone it’s NOT “better” they’ll stick to their BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices (yes, even after June with the iPhone gets Exchange support).
@ Michael Koby
“I have never read an article with so much fan-boyism in it.”
You must be new.
Yikes…I forgot the u…eh?
Sometimes it’s embarrsing being an apple user. The moronic comments on here provide a good chuckle.
Almost every mobile device I have seen in the past 8 years that doesn’t intregrate with corporate applications has failed. OS 2.0 from what i’ve tested so far is the most basic activesync I’ve seen yet, Windows Mobile functions better, so if you’ve used those you know how god aweful that can be.
I have a iphone. I’d like it to have a real keypad of some sort, so do the many executives that are clueless and the less they have to think about how something works the better. Iphone appeals to the more connected, gadget status symbol type. 90% of users just want something they know works.
Having control over 3000+ mobile devices (Fortune 100 company) iphone hopefully will support mobile device manager so yes most of the multimedia functions and applications can be controlled. Media and business are like oil and water, just as the internet was when it first came around. Human Resources will need to craft polcies about personal media on corporate owned devices, and the thought of Itunes on desktops? shudder!!
yes the iphone is slick, but it needs some serious other carrier support.
The BB 9000 series has been in development for almost 2 years, sharing a modeling casing is about as close to the iphone it comes. What it does bring RIM is a powerhouse version of a proven device (more memory, higher screen resolution etc)
As noted this market is just starting to to grow and it’s beyond the control of 1 company. Mobility will have a device for everyone and at various price points. Iphone needs to figure out where it’s going to compete, the Blackberry pearl is $49 dollars now and the 9000 will be the upper end like a Mac G5 pro .. different devices / different people. What Apple does with the next device will be interesting.
Before all the fanboys react I’ve been a Apple user since my IIe through my current G5.
“well are stuff is better”
I’m still trying to figure out what that means. It might be a subtle message using a homonym pointing to a deeper, hidden meaning. Well (we are) done. Did I get it?
“What it does bring RIM is a powerhouse version of a proven device (more memory, higher screen resolution etc)”
Yeah, and a chrome bezel. That’s called a ‘stop gap’ model to freshen the line while R&D;work on the one you don’t have to sell yet. See the 2004 Jetta for an example. Storage upgrades are a no-risk endeavor, you’re just plugging in a new module. So what? This is a Cinderella version. Created for one reason – to appeal to people who want to have something that looks vaguely like an iPhone in their hands, but are scared of music and colors.
Come On. Show me a new kind of interface that doesn’t waste half my screen real-estate. Impress me for jeebus sake. The 9000 is nothing I haven’t seen a million times. But to be fair, it’s dressing up like a real, grown up phone for a change.
Good show, RIM.
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-c
I’ll wait for an independent and objective (read honest) review thank you.
One huge point is missing throughout this thread.
RIM is improving its line of business phones with this. They’re improving features that they’ve had forever. What they are not doing, and most importantly not *trying* to do, is create an iPhone killer. Sure, there are millions of Pearl users out there that don’t use it for business – that’s an added bonus. But you will not find in RIM’s immediate business plan is to compete with multimedia powerhouses like the iPhone.
If/when they decide to, and if they create a pathetic attempt, this article (and subsequent apple fanboi flames) will be relevant and correct.
Don’t be too hard on RIM. A LOT of people like their CrackBerries. These folks are very much in love with their phone, much like we love our Macs. Before the iPhone, I was a big support of RIM. It wasn’t perfect (neither is iPhone), but compared to what else is out there, it is pretty good.
That said, RIM shouldn’t ignore what Apple is doing. Palm did, and look what has happened to them. People do like their product, but only because it sucks less than most of the rest. Once you have tried the iPhone, the Blackberry becomes a very crude device. It will be interesting to see where we are a year from now.
I don’t think that Rim put this phone out as an answer to the Iphone. It seems to me that this is just another device in the evolution of rim’s product line. The 9000 looks exactly as you would expect the next Blackberry offering to look like. The curve came out just slightly before the Iphone, and this phone looks like a simple step forward of the 8320’s architecture. Keep in mind that the article is from Macdaily news, which will always be biased towards Mac products, and besides that, Mac daily news has always been infamous for bashing anything not a Mac. So It would be expected for them to bash the 9000 series BB and try to compare it to the Iphone, as of course they will do with any other smarthphone that attempts to have a nice interface that gets released on the market. In my opinion I don’t see it as a competitor to the Iphone. The blackberry does what it does well, as does the Iphone. Iphone hands down has the coolest GUI around and that’s where one of its strengths lies, but I still think that Blackberry will hold its ground for quite some time still. I will certainly not argue about the strengths of the Iphone, but for Macdaily to presume that every phone that will eventually come out on the Market is a competitor to the Iphone is just a bit over the top, almost as if no other phone that comes out from this date forward will ever be able to compete in a market with the Iphone. Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Many other companies will be releasing numerous phones over the next few months, I do Find it interesting that Mac Daily chooses the BB as the phone to Bash. I think That Rim should be kind of flattered, Nokia and Motorola arent getting any of this press, I wonder why?
@freebeer
Well put. See my last post (or couple posts). I think that at this stage of the game you HAVE to compare the Blackberry (okay maybe not this particular model) to the iPhone because it’s changing the face of the entire smartphone industry. I don’t believe that the 9000 is RIM’s response to the iPhone. They are probably busy working on a full-fledged personal lifestyle device. I just think its too late. Especially if it took them 2 years to, as MobileAdmin said: “[add] more memory, higher screen resolution”.
This article sucks. That’s OK, I wouldn’t expect much from “MACdailynews”.
However, I am a Blackberry addict, I won’t give up the physical keyboard, and I hate this new phone. The keyboard got bigger and the screen really is too small. RIM should keep the physical keyboard and just make it less obtrusive.
I see no resemblance to the iPhone, it looks more like the crappy MotoQ to me. With 3G, battery life should be a lot like that of MotoQ too.
I suspect that when people compare iPhone with other devices there’s an underlying false assumption that all users enjoy their device the same way and share the same level of loyalty. My personal anecdotal evidence tells me iPhone users are way more ‘into’ their device than others, based on my observation of my family and friends who use Apple products, while company issued Blackberries are generally only tolerated by the necessary staff or low to middle management only because they have to. I myself had an company issued BB less than a year ago, and can say with confidence for the most part people only really use it for email and phone, which if not for the enterprise Groupwise capability could’ve just been done with a regular cheap mobile phone nowadays. And the only time people bother to type on it is because they have to, like being away from their desk or they’re workaholics away from their office, but because they enjoy it. Most junior managers don’t even bother to use it at all. It could have been any phone, Palm, BB, nor Nokia and wouldn’t made a difference.
RIM is not going away, for sure, but I would bet that the likelihood of a user switching from BB to iPhone, if given the choice, is much more than the likelihood of a user switching from iPhone to BB, so that should be RIM’s biggest worry.
The second big thing that is in iPhone’s favor is the coming of all the new features and apps. Imagine lots of corporate and work-enabling apps besides just watching movies and surfing the web starting to roll out this fall, and they will, combined with the elegance of the UI to get things done fast, the iPhone will absolutely be more productive for your workers than any other smart device and worth more of the investment for an organization, IMO.
To add to my above post, I also would say comparing iPhone and BB right now is still like comparing apples (no pun intended) to oranges. I think most BB’s are bought for business purpose, and the iPhone began as a regular consumer device. They aimed to please in different ways and focused on different features. It’s not simply the business functions and enterprise integration that lends BB into the business setting, but also the typical service contract vehicle that a company or government agency has to use for volume business and to acquire maintenance and support. I suspect those large contracts are what gives RIM the larger user base.
That’s what makes the popularity of the iPhone stunning. With virtually no corporate enforcement, people voluntarily bought those phones and made it the second most popular smartphone within a year. Now it’s up to Apple to make sure the enterprise integration AND a better business services plan will really work for large organizations. I know my former co-workers will love to toss their BBs for the new iPhones.
@mad mac maniac
Maybe your eye sight is failing you… then again I have 20/5 vision so vision is no problem for me.
RIM is definately trying to do what MS did but MS had a lot more money to do it, trying to dominate the market. It just wont happen with RIM if this is all they can come up with a year after the iphone is released.
I hate to even mention this but there is only ONE phone out there that even comes close to the iphone and it isn’t in the USA yet. It is made by samsung and looks like a well designed ripoff of the iphone. Looks like it runs a linux OS and the keypad it has…. is just like a regular cell phone keypad aka no full qwerty key layout. It will also go for $700.
I’ll be buying an iphone once the sdk is released and they are on the 3G network. Then I’ll have my company pay for the minutes 😀
Everything RIM does is half baked. When a product is first proposed inside RIM, it gets whittled down until it’s not very nice compared to competing devices. They always make excuses about “time to market”. At one time, even the Treo was a better phone than the BlackBerrys. They are always playing catch-up. Sad.
I simply expect more out of RIM and see them as a true innovative competitor to the iPhone. If this is all they can muster, then that is truly a spiral backwards for them, but I expect this 9000 to be a decoy to buy them some time for what they really have in store. If this is all they got, then another Apple hardware and software update will drive the stake. The other competitors should be rejoicing if this is all they got up their sleeve. If I was still a shareholder any longer, I would be extremely concerned.
Their next device now has to be earthshattering to get anyone’s attention.
Buttons simply are in the way nowadays and the interface right down to the fonts is unintuitive after seeing the video of it in use.
who in the heck wants to lug around a typer-writer?????
“WHO ARE YOU REALLY, STEVEJACK?!?!?!”
… “we met once, at the Kremlin in Moscow. I’m sorry about your wife.” – J. Ryan
“Forty years I’ve been at sea. A war at sea. A war with no battles, no monuments… only casualties.”
SteveJack is obviously nothing less than an AI algorithm that attunes directly with your brain – thusly allowing the individual MDN reader to conjure up an image of SteveJack (appearance/personality), depending on personal preferences/experiences/expectations and so forth. It’s also a great way of selling Apple Inc’s virtues and products!
Afterall, Apple’s HQ isn’t really in Cupertino, it’s based in a heavily fortified mobile fortress somewhere under the Indian Ocean…
Beware the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo!
Why would RIM want to dumb down their products to the level of the Iphone?
red mac background
fsck them – they are screwed
I actually own stock in both RIM and Apple (more apple stock, of course). Both are taking market share from the big smartphone losers (Microsoft and Palm) and both have profitable revenue streams (Apple’s kickback from AT&T;rate plans and RIM’s service charge for the blackberry email)
That said it is really really lame how RIM, Samsung, and others think they can make “iphone killers” by making painting their existing phones black. They fail to grasp the strengths of the iPhone/Touch OS (very stable, superior browser, email, you can learn to use it without even reading the manual, etc),
I think its important for people on here to be a bit more balanced with regard to giving opinion on the iphone
the comments that there is room for both RIM and Apple to grow are correct
this new blackberry and the new nokia tube are just stop gap products to try and keep market share, the flagship full on responses to the iphone are still at least 6 months away, which is a big problem for both companies within the US market but the iphone is not currently that attractive an option in europe due to poor value contracts and the fact that rivals to the iphone are often given free initially to customers.
the iphones business model suits the US market but not europe (cant comment on asia)
yea that sucks.. get an iPhone. its now $199 and it out performs all competitors. You cant beat that!
a couple of years after ipods came out lets be realistic, all other mp3 devices went extinct.Now it took about 4-5 years but now no other player can even come close. The iPhone just came out last year and already the fasting selling phone ever! AFTER ONE YEAR. Just imagine the next couple of years. Apple is the future..Enough said!
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What a biased article to say theleast. Just because the Blackberry Bold sports a new screen and a tweaked graphical user interface you Steve Jack thinks they are trying to copy Apple. How sad!
The quest for improved interfaces and screen resolution is bigger than the iphone. You Apple fans seem to think your iphone is the holy grail and nothing compares. Sad so sad and such a limited way of viewing the market. Comparing a Blackberry to an iphone is like comparing ‘apples to oranges’. They are both very good at what they do and blackberry will achieve excellent sales from the new Bold. It is still a superior solution for business use to an iphone and the iphone superior as an internet browser. As a music device most good smartphones with microds storage are perfectly good as mp3 music players. I can use A2DP stereo Bluetooth and and Motorola stereo bluetooth headphones on my Bold.
Get over it guys, the iphone is good enough but it is not the perect phone in every situation, far from it!
Mr Jacks, if you are going to write articles at least try to come up with constructive journalism. Your article is that of a dressed up Apple fanboy!
I think the last thing on RIM’s mind is to cop the iphone. The Bold is merely a natural improvement and evolution in a proven product line and very good at what it does. Unlike HTC or the new Samsung Omnia the Bold is not some pretender. A physical keyboard is far from antiquated and it’s a really stupid comment to view it as a awate of real estate and Rim’s attempt as pathetic. it’s your knowledge and views of the smartphone market that are frankly pathetic.
Mr Jacks go join all your Apple fanboys at a convention in Vegas and you can all celebrate your make-believe superiority together! As a technology journalist you are severely lacking!
“I simply expect more out of RIM and see them as a true innovative competitor to the iPhone. If this is all they can muster, then that is truly a spiral backwards for them, but I expect this 9000 to be a decoy to buy them some time for what they really have in store. If this is all they got, then another Apple hardware and software update will drive the stake. The other competitors should be rejoicing if this is all they got up their sleeve. If I was still a shareholder any longer, I would be extremely concerned.
Their next device now has to be earthshattering to get anyone’s attention.
Buttons simply are in the way nowadays and the interface right down to the fonts is unintuitive after seeing the video of it in use.”
Total fanboy gibberish! Blackberry and RIM are far from dead and as yet another blinkered fanboy you fail to realise many people still like physical keyboards. Not everyone shares your world view on technology and ergonomics. Go worship your Apple God lol!