Apple iPhone vs. BlackBerry vs. Google’s Android: There are many lessons for investors

“There’s a new book out on BlackBerry called Losing the Signal. I listened to an interview with the authors Wednesday,” Eric Jackson writes for Real Money. “It prompted me to go back and see where the stocks prices of Apple and BlackBerry were on Jan. 9, 2007. I realized that, since that intro, Apple’s stock price has increased by 10 times, while BlackBerry’s has declined 93%.”

“The iPhone was the right product from the right company at the right time. Mobile was just about to take off. We didn’t know that in 2007, but Apple did. It got its product out there and then iterated,” Jackson writes. “We trusted Apple to get it right over time. We were willing to accept it in the early days when the experience wasn’t perfect. It reminds me of people complaining about the Apple Watch today.”

“One of the smartest responses to the introduction of the iPhone was Google’s. It had been working on a BlackBerry-copycat version of Android. Google quickly changed tack to copy the iPhone. It ended up selling all the low-end phones in the market previously sold by Nokia (NOK). It was successful in gaining adoption,” Jackson writes. “Yet, since the iPhone introduction date, Apple’s stock is up 989% and Google’s is up 121%, barely more than the Nasdaq, which is up 111%. Google has merely treaded water since 2007 with the market. All credit seems to go to the market victors, not the market also-rans.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Beleaguered BlackBerry doesn’t even merit the title of “iPhone also-ran.” It became “iPhone roadkill” long ago.

SEE ALSO:

Losing the Signal: The inside story of how Apple’s revolutionary iPhone crippled BlackBerry – May 22, 2015

17 Comments

    1. Google was smart in the sense that they stopped copying what was the market leader at the time and instead set about copying what was to become the smartphone of the future.

      It was the iPhone’s ease of use that ignited the smartphone revolution. Prior to the iPhone, web browsing on mobile devices was difficult and frustrating. Hardly anybody bothered to use it. The iPhone and all the other phones that copied it’s touch interface allowed users to navigate the web intuitively and rapidly, without relying on specially simplified web sites for mobile use.

  1. Nope, Apple is way up and google isn’t because Apple gets the lions share of smart phone profits and google doesn’t and the iPhone is the undisputed platform for mobile advertising and android isn’t, even though that was Google’s stated objective.

    Google enjoys the spotlight of having an operating system and the “innovator” status that endures from their actions associated with that OS. It camouflages that Google are really a one trick pony in terms of where their net cash flows come from.

    1. Indeed. I’ve used DDG exclusively for at least three years now, and prior to that I used Scroogle.com until they went belly up.

      Go-ogle does not deserve to know anything about me, so I do everything I can to make certain they can’t know anything about me. Well, except for whatever Go-ogle and the NSA steal from me.

  2. I believe one overlooked reason is the camera and it’s related software. Most “feature” and smart phones had cameras, however they were difficult to use, did not store photos instantly, low quality, and the small screens made viewing photos painful. Instead storage of a photo, full size screen, easy access, and editing software made the camera useful. Even though the camera was not the best and did not have a flash, overall it was better than others phones and point and shoot cameras. The iPhone replaced three devices, cell phone, camera, and music player. Something Blackberry did not even think about. Google understood this and changed course.

    Just looking at the iPhone as smartphone leaves out important reasons why it took off so quickly. Blackberry was not the only looser. Kodac, Fuji, Nintendo, Sony and Apple’s iPod have all been hurt by the iPhone.

    1. “… and Apple’s iPod have all been hurt by the iPhone.”

      And this is why Apple is in the position it is today. They saw a future where smartphones would become the go to device for media consumption and decided to supplant their most successful product at the time with something new. Most companies disappear or are already falling off the cliff before ever realizing that.

  3. From my POV it always comes back to this lesson:

    Intimately know the technology into which you are investing.

    If you don’t, the statistically expected result is:
    Darn! Boom-Dot-Bust all over again.
    (I’m referring to the technology sector recession that I watched begin in 1998, eventually going full BOMB in 2001).

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