Comments on: The BlackBerry is in for a bruising

By: Rick, Waterloo, Ontario

Rick, Waterloo, Ontario — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:11:48 +0000

Windows Mobile will bury RIM? Get real! MS and RIM are both partners and competitors. For example, they recently announced MS Live Hotmail and Messenger for the BB platform. And RIM will be launching their OS on all Windows Mobile devices in the near future. MS isn’t happy about that though, because once people get the Blackberry experience on Windows Mobile devices, they will wonder why they didn’t get a Blackbery in the first place.

By: bbeezy, Indianapolis, IN

bbeezy, Indianapolis, IN — Wed, 14 May 2008 04:51:54 +0000

iphone over blackberry? be serious. iphones are for kids. i think i’ll stick with my nextel blackberry 7520 (for the PTT (push to talk) or “chirp” and my ipod.

RIMM, NEXTEL, HURRY UP!!

By: David, Sacramento CA

David, Sacramento CA — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:07:33 +0000

SS: The new Apple iPhone 2 will support both HSDPA and UMTS. Which is the same as the Blackberry Bold. The Bold will not be faster then the iPhone 2.

By: iSmashPhone, Philadelphia PA

iSmashPhone, Philadelphia PA — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:38:12 +0000

Mobile industry was laughing when Apple announced that they plan to get into mobile handset business. Less then two years later, everybody is trying to develop iPhone killer. I hate to bet but Apple will reshape mobile industry even more (they did that with MP3s in electronic industry). No need to talk about Blackberry back-end, this is the gap Apple can close alone or with partners.
iSmashPhone.com

By: gerhm78@yahoo.com.mx

gerhm78@yahoo.com.mx — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:33:27 +0000

Iphone has craeted high spectations in Mexico, the exclusive carrier is going to be Telcel which is the bigges carrier in mexico. By the time the Iphone hit mexico
it will include 3G tech along with all the business applications, which will make Blackberry extremely nervous. also we have to take into account that the Iphone is very music-friendly which will make Erricson and Nokia -the most
popular cell phones in mexico- highly
skittish. It’s going to be fight for survival in the phone industry in Mexico with the Iphone’s arrival.

By: Larry Mayberry- Dexter, Mo

Larry Mayberry- Dexter, Mo — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:58:09 +0000

Mr. Moritz, you contradict your headline that the “Blackberry is going to take a bruising” by the words you wrote in the article. Why do you headline one theme yet write another?

By: BC, Boston MA

BC, Boston MA — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:09:48 +0000

I’ve been setting up Blackberries and Treos for a while and the Blackberry really is just a one-trick pony, but it does that trick very well and is easy enough for the average tech-challenge corporate suit to master, and these types of guys don’t change ponies very easily. But the writing is on the wall for RIM in terms of where handheld tech is going. They ought think about investing in a company like ASUS or such for future devices.

By: JHB Boca Raton, FL

JHB Boca Raton, FL — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:51:16 +0000

In my opinion, the iPhone is and remains mostly a consumer product, notwithstanding 3G, the hype about Cisco and Microsoft Exchange. The Blackberry is and remains mostly a business product, notwithstanding the move toward including more media. There is plenty of room for both products. My needs are for a business product. I want a physical keyboard. I especially want a very efficient mobile email device, not a “little computer”. The functionality for email of the Blackberry is vastly superior to that of the iPhone. One example is the fact that you must delete emails one by one on the iPhone. On the Blackberry, you can scroll down the entire list of emails and by holding the correct key, highlight all of them for deletion with one go. So, while the Blackberry may be “clunkier” than the iPhone for some consumer functions, the iPhone is “clunkier” than the Blackberry for email functions, the raison d’etre of the device and the principal use for businesses.

They will both thrive because they are both at the top of the game for which they are intended and not aimed at the same market, at least for now.

By: Adam, Lincoln, Nebraska

Adam, Lincoln, Nebraska — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:54:30 +0000

Dear Writer, be better informed. Blackberry has had at least two 3G phones, the Curve and the Pearl, with a company that has decent 3G coverage, Verizon Wireless

By: William, Phoenix Arizona

William, Phoenix Arizona — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:27:30 +0000

I can tell you that my company is ditching the blackberry for the iphone. We tend to lead trends and so I’m betting this may be the beginning of the exodus called for by the author. User friendly, meme, customization, multiple media options is where we finally end the consumer revolution. RIMM’s specificity will outdate her. The trend is not her friend. (and, my personal care is for neither)

By: Big Bill, Redmond, WA

Big Bill, Redmond, WA — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:05:59 +0000

Microsoft Windows Mobile will bury RIM, not Apple.

By: Jeff, Brooklyn, New York

Jeff, Brooklyn, New York — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:55:05 +0000

BlackBerry will continue to dominate the business market due to the qwerty keypad. I work for an investment bank, and people that need to type quick will never go for the iPhone touchscreen . No matter what the iPhoniphiles think. For the record I love apple and use an iMac and a MacBook Pro, but I sync a BlackBerry to them, and will be upgrading to the new BB Bold when it is released. For all of those that say that a touchscreen is just as fast as a keypad, then why doesn’t Apple convert all of their keyboards to touchscreen? Exactly, because its not as fast.

If email is your bread-n-butter, BlackBerry is still the only game in town.

By: Will, Placentia, CA

Will, Placentia, CA — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:54:29 +0000

Tundra: Next time try reading the article. It wasn’t “Apple over RIM”. . it was Apple, and Nokia, and market realities (sluggish economy vis-a-vis service cost) that the author felt would erode RIM’s share. You’ll get so much more out of these articles if you actually read them.

By: SS, Toronto, Canada.

SS, Toronto, Canada. — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:37:56 +0000

It looks like a few of us are missing the point.

RIM’s “Bold” phone works on High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) which is a 3.5G technology offering download speeds of upto 14.4 Mbit per second.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Speed_Downlink_Packet_Access

While Apple’s upcoming, much hyped 3G phone uses UMTS, which supports a maximum data rate of 2 Mbps.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS#Features

You can easily see that the Bold will be atleast 5 times faster than the iPhones new 3G phone. (even after taking into account more practical data rates after network load, traffic overheads etc.)

Simply stated, you will have to wait 5 times longer to download music/ browse a webpage on the new iPhone. So, I agree that the Bold is not light years ahead of the iPhone, but it is 5 times ahead.

Acknowledge the facts, or else things like the financical sector collapse are likely to happen again.

By: Rick, Waterloo, Ontario

Rick, Waterloo, Ontario — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:36:40 +0000

Too funny! Another article about the next “blackberry killers”. I’ve been reading that story for the last five years and I laugh every time. I imagine we’ll be reading the same story in another five years as well. Meanwhile, RIM stock has increased in value 600% in less than two years. I think it was up $9 today alone. Everyone seems to forget that Apple has actually helped RIM, by focusing so much public attention on Smart Phones. Blackberry sales have skyrocketed since the iPhone came out. Thanks Apple.

By: TOYOTA TUNDRA

TOYOTA TUNDRA — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:36:24 +0000

It’s funny that all of a sudden, RIM is going to fade away because of the iPhoney. You media types seem to think that Apple has dominate market share in the mobile phone world. The only sector that Apple has dominante share is the mp3 sector. RIM will be fine and so will Apple.

By: Wishing to be free....

Wishing to be free.... — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:52:43 +0000

But Blackberry has the corporate market where “they” control and watch what you do on your cellphone/pda via the Blackberry server. Guess what? Most of us IT people here have Apple iphones for our person phone and NOT blackberrys. If we could only change Corporate from Blackberry’s to iPhones….

By: Rob, San Jose, Ca.

Rob, San Jose, Ca. — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:10:35 +0000

“This writer needs to look up the Cisco Iphone. Not the same as Apple’s Iphone.”

Just so you know they were not talking about the Cisco iPhone, they were indeed talking about the Apple iPhone when it comes to IPsec VPN technology. Apple has announced this, and so to has John Chambers, I do hope you realize when John Chambers says Apple iPhone, he certainly knows the difference.

By: SF, Wilmington,de

SF, Wilmington,de — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:20:05 +0000

An Apple is only good as it looks! As I mentioned before, AT&T mobile service sucks! To many drop calls! Until they offer it on Verizon’s network, I won’t buy it!!

By: Tom Ross, Berlin, Germany

Tom Ross, Berlin, Germany — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:42:12 +0000

iPhone 2.0 (the software update) is not a rumour, it’s been officially announced by Apple. The update will be released to all iPhones (old and new) around June ‘08 and will add (among other things) a bunch of business-releated features like MS Exchange-sync and Remote Wipe.

You can find all the details about this upcoming software update on apple.com. [1]

iPhone 2 (the phone) on the other hand is entirely speculation. All we know (from several comments made by the Telco partners) is that there will be a 3G phone from Apple this year.

When the new phone will arrive and what additional new business features it may or may not have is still up in the air, but it really doesn’t matter for this article because the software update is already on track and a formidable threat for Blackberry.

[1] http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/iphoneroadmap/