The Blackberry is an ingrained business tool. Its super feature is its push email feature. It lets you get email in real-time. That’s where the unique benefits begin and end. Its Internet is still only as fast as the network’s speed. Its interface is ok. Let’s just say it’s no iPhone. And the Blackberries themselves look nice, but not that special. Again, it’s no iPhone or an HTC Touch.
But for a corporate workplace that requires instantaneous communication, it can be a lifeline. Although to be perfectly frank, most of this “necessary” instantaneous communication, is overstated anyway. Unless you work for Bear Sterns and you’re trying to figure out whether you’ll have a job tomorrow because you invested a billion dollars in what you thought was a super hot sundial company, your life will probably not explode because you didn’t respond to an email the moment the shadows shifted. But whatever, if it’s paid by corporate money, it’s free, right?
I can count on zero fingers the number of people I know, who need to have their personal email pushed to them.
I can count on zero fingers the number of people I know, who run a small business that requires their email to be pushed to them.
It does take me a couple hands to count the number of people I know, who have a Blackberry. Many of these Blackberries are not company-paid.
So for the people with Blackberries that they’re paying out of their own pocket, I have to ask… why? Or to quote the immortal Ricky Watters, “for who? for what?”
This is the iPhone’s money melon. This is where it gobbles Blackberry market share. I doubt the iPhone will ever be an enterprise-standard - even with the planned Microsoft Exchange compatibility in version 2.0 - it just costs too much. I’ve learned that the bigger the company, the cheaper they are. It’s a direct inverse relationship, I kid you not. So until Apple starts giving those phones away with the plans, it’ll never be the dominant corporate player. But it doesn’t need to be. Apple doesn’t need to knock out RIMM in the corporate space, it’ll be just fine knocking out RIMM everywhere besides the corporate space.
See for the people who are willing to pay for Blackberries (or a Treo, PPC, Smartphone, etc.) out of their own pocket, the iPhone should be gobbling that market segment up, because it’s cooler, more stylish, easier to use and if you look at the graphic below from a recent Apple Inside article, a better deal than most of the Blackberries (and PPC/Smartphones). Sometimes by a significant margin.
So going back to my original question. If you could choose between a Blackberry or an iPhone, that does everything you need, but is easier to use, is a lot better looking, attracts more chicks (or guys), etc., at a cheaper price - what the heck are you doing with a Blackberry?
Of course, you could always sign up for the Sprint Sero plan, get 1250 minutes, unlimited data and unlimited text messaging with an HTC Touch - which is fantastic - for half the price of owning an iPhone. But no one talks about this, because everyone hates Sprint because their customer service reps treat you like you just walked into Guantanamo.
I’m just saying.
