MacDailyNews Take: “Buy One, Get One Free” RIM currently leads in nothing but units shipped and that’s only because Apple has yet to report their holiday quarter results.
Taylor and Ando continue, “RIM shipped a record-breaking 10.1 million phones in the third quarter and expects to ship 10.6-11.2 million phones in the current quarter at an average selling price of $320. But strong international sales masked a string of structural weaknesses, said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu.”
“Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder thinks Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM is still behind the curve. He said the BlackBerry maker will face ‘a difficult period ahead as it reaches further down the value chain to fuel its growth,'” Taylor and Ando report. “RIM has cornered the corporate market, but it has not yet launched a touchscreen, media-centric phone that captures consumer imagination, he said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As more and more people get iPhones and show their family and friends, even CrackBerry addicts will be able to glance up for long enough to see that RIM’s devices and, especially, its BlackBerry OS are painfully antiquated. Case in point: The reason the Storm’s screen “clicks” is not to provide some magical new feedback for the user, but because the ancient OS requires the user to provide such input. RIM’s Storm devices are not designed to serve the user, but rather to put the user to work in service of limitations inherent in the BlackBerry OS. Unless RIM rewrites their OS from the ground up, and likely even if they do (Android is already in place, after all) RIM’s long-term prognosis is, at best, a slow decline into irrelevance.
It’s damn junk!
Nothing beats an iPhone.
Nothing.
but, but, but…… it has a REAL keyboard!!!!
true story:
4 folks talking around office Xmas party
3 have iphones/ 1 blackberry
talking about apps…..BB person says “blackberry has apps too”
response: “Cool, what apps have you got on your BB?”
BB person: “I downloaded this cool flashlight app”
so 2007….
So long as the iPhone remains tied to ATT exclusively without any CDMA models, RIM will have plenty of breathing room.
RIM has an important function in the world and it beats having insider trader knowledge. When you see someone using a Crackberry, find out what company they work for. You now know another company that is going to be going the way of General Motors. Use that knowledge and benefit.
At the mall near me, the AT&T;store advertises: Lowest Blackberry Prices Ever!
Some are free and some are $49.00
@ Amazin1
Best comment of the day here on MDN!
I never owned a BlackBerry myself (they are not that popular in Europe) or an Android-based phone. I had mostly SE phones until I got the phone that I will not switch from, the iPhone. But even Apple needs competition to stay on their development path, and (from what I understand, i.e. read) I hope Google and RIM will be the best chosen competitors. Hey, come on, who else can come even one magnitude (or a few magnitudes) close to Apple?
MS (Hehe…..)? Palm? Symbian? Don’t think so. What else is there?
@ R2: CDMA iphone would be a waste of money.GSM is what the rest of the world uses. I believe the next gen cell network (LTE) is what Apple is waiting for-that and the 5 year exclusivity with AT&T;to be up.
Why does everyone seem to forget about the 5 year deal Apple cut with AT&T;and the stupidity of Verizon in passing on the phone?
I whole heartily agree with this article. RIM is doing a wonderful job at selling yesterday’s technology to people who don’t know any better or have one reason or another for not making a choice that better positions them for the future of mobile computing.
It goes to show for at least this moment, two markets can co-exist.
PS: The company I work for a crackberry addicts- better look for another job.
“The reason the Storm’s screen “clicks” is not to provide some magical new feedback for the user, but because the ancient OS requires the user to provide such input.”
Actually, from what I’ve read, the Storm’s “SurePress” clicking was developed as a way to make a touchscreen phone feel more familiar to people accustomed to Blackberry’s physical keyboards.
FromSweden,
Apple invented the iPhone sans “competition,” therefore your claim that “Apple needs competition to stay on their development path,” is complete and utter bullshit.
Apple competes with themselves. They certainly don’t need a bunch of years-late bad imitators like Palm, Motorola, HTC, Microsoft, and Google to spur them on.
Stop parroting what the idiots in the media tell you and think for yourself.
time will show this report to be false – and further the attitude of the people here is quite amusing.
RIM has no chance until they get rid of the Keyboard Clitball.
@Superior Being,
Quite appropriate handle. “FromSweden” was being very diplomatic in his comments and very pro-Apple at the end.
Lighten up.
I’ve never thought about the clicking thing being required for the OS. The trackball was what they used which was required for highlighting and then selecting an item. The clicky screen does the same thing–highlighting the item does not actually select it.
I will always root for just because it’s Canadian, but seriously, they have not innovated for years. Every model is the same; maybe one model doesn’t have WiFi or another mixes a keyboard from this model with the screen of another, but essentially, it’s the same phone with the same tired OS.
Nothing RIM does could dispel MDN doubts.
There is no phone but iPhone.
For long after the Mac was introduced, people (including many business people) kept buying and using DOS computers, calling the easier interface a toy.
There’s a parallel here, except consumers are a lot smarter this time around.
@ Superior Being
Your comments to FromSweden are unwarranted, you may disagree with him, and that’s fine, but to say he he/she doesn’t think for them self, is “Complete Bullshit”. You may not like a product or brand for one reason or another, that doesn’t mean a piece of that thing is not the spark for someone else’s next major invention. Including Apple’s
Less one forget that Apple engineers are masters of software design. The competition doesn’t stand a chance with discerning buyers.
@Bob L:
Superior Being may be lude and rude, but he has a point.
Has anyone ever read the “exclusivity agreement” Apple has with ATnT? I thought not. Therefore no one knows if there is a agreement or how long it lasts. I hope it is not five years as I want T-Mobile to get the iPhone.
Slightly off the thread here, I know, but it occured to me while reading this that many people in many places seem to be lying to a whole lot of MANY people (like Joe Public) about the underlying costs of mobile telephony. Verizon has posted a reply to the challenge over its early termination charges, in which it says that these charges are necessary because of the high cost of subsidising phones. Seems reasonable enough on the surface. But then we hear that RIM is doing a 2 for 1 offer on a recent phone. To me that sounds like somebody’s margins are too fat for any reasonable consumer’s comfort. So what are the economics of cell phone markets?
Oh and to be on-topic, to me it is the beginning of a defeatist mindset when a supposed contender/leading player starts doing BOGOF.
Recent comment from a friend of mine (they switched to Mac not so long ago – in part thanks to me), who recently got his iPhone, showing it off to some friends at a party: “it’s the best piece of computer hardware I’ve ever come across” – after having had the iPhone for less than a month.
(I could not agree more – but then they don’t ask me anymore, because they know that I’m an all-Apple guy).
Recent comment from my brother, who, after being an Apple-basher for a long time just last week got his first iMac: “it just works, it’s unbelievable: I started it up for the first time, it finds the network, goes online, it just works”.
The iPhone will bring a whole lot more people to the world of the Macs, and they will like it.
(and I will hold on to my couple of AAPL’s)