Just for an update, I’ve since canceled my Blackberry 8320 and now carry my iPhone as my main work phone.

I elaborated a bit more on the reasoning here:

http://www.geardiary.com/2008/05/19/goodbye-blackberry-its-not-me-its-you-heres-10-reasons-i-left/

I have also heard recent rumors of Apple reducing its multitasking restrictions on third party apps, and that coupled with what I saw in that keynote, will definitely make the iPhone a wonderful third party platform.

So, I apologize for my quick to jump comments, and I while I still can’t see Apple completely removing RIM from the equation in places where it is already established (like the Government), I can see them making quite the splash in more open business environments, from small and local all the way to large and international.

1. No physical keyboard.
2. No CDMA version. Yes, this mostly affects US users. But, I know quite a few people that would consider trying an iPhone but will not leave Sprint or Verizon for what ever reason.
3. No Multi-tasking. This was the big reason for me to leave Palm for the BB.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mas90guru/2269051938/

I may be off on the years (I could swear that I located info online when this device was first released and used that as my basis for stating when I started using the BB — I’ve had one ever since they were available – every model – or variation)

With respect to the required data plans, you’re right. You need to use a plan with other PDA phones as well. I see having to buy a RIM specific one which is more expensive and an additional point of failure as a downside.

As for the whole issue of replacing Blackberries with iPhones — you’re right again — my feel is that this is going to change pretty quickly as the iPhone enters the corporate market with promised Exchange features (I believe one announced feature was to disable phones remotely). I’m making a few leaps of faith (which perhaps I shouldn’t) that Apple will execute and build into their next iPhone OS all the tools needed to make the phone corporate friendly.

I’m disappointed by the lack of cool apps like the Slingbox player lak (in beta but as of yet unreleased) as well as the dog slow speed on my T-Mo 8320 browser and the lack of html email (and early reports are that it still may be delayed in future OS releases).

You make a lot of excellent points and present an very good opposing viewpoint to this article.

Thanks for making such a well thought out comment on this topic.

The browser is being drastically improved as well. The new information about OS 4.6 shows screen shots of the actual browser, and it uses a scroll and zoom style much like the iPhone.

Data plans are a requirement of ALL PDA devices, even the iPhone. It uses At&t’s basic MEdia Net system however, so it is only $20, but it’s still an additional cost, and unlike the BlackBerry, you can’t create an iPhone line without it. You are also overlooking the differences between BES and BIS. BES allows for remote control of all devices on the network, as well as a far more secure system when compared to free services like Google Sync and the likes. For example, if a worker’s device is lost and ends up in the wrong hands, the BES admins can simply do a remote device wipe and all the confidential information on the device is gone.

If you told my company to drop their BES and swap all the employees to iPhones with Exchange, they would laugh at you. Like I said, there is more to BES than two way, wireless sync, and the loss of security alone would be more than enough for my company to scoff at the idea.

Your third party apps comment is one I don’t understand either. Go to Handango or Mobihand and set your device as a BlackBerry, then look for all available third party apps. It will return over 2,000 apps. How is that sparse? What exactly do you need that isn’t available, and how many apps can you realistically utilize on your phone? I have been using BlackBerrys for quite some time, and I have never had more than 10-15 3rd party apps installed at the same time, nor have I ever had a problem finding an app to do what I want. Having a lot of third party apps doesn’t mean you will always have a lot of good ones. Remember, quantity over quality is not a good way to live.

You also fail to mention the concept of how strict Apple is being about the upcoming 3rd party apps for its iPhone. They require all apps to be signed by them, and are only allowing distribution through iTunes. They are also restricting all apps to run in a single tasking environment. The latest rumor is that they may allow some multi-tasking, but it will be minimal at best. At least on my BlackBerry I can have all 15 of my apps running at the same time if I so choose, and I can freely (and easily) swap between them. I would never do this because of system stability, but the fact remains that it is MY choice if I want to or not. Apple is making the choice for you, and that can be a recipe for disaster.

I love the iPhone for what it is, I really do, but it is by no means ready to wipe RIM out, especially in the corporate sector. I am not trying to argue, but I do think your comments and “reasons” are a bit short sighted.

I am working in a law firm. A lot of users (attorneys) asked the IT whether they can use the iPhone instead of Blackberry. IT told the users the keyboard of iPhone is not as good as Blackberry. Most of them showed no concern about the keyboard. They told the IT most of the time they only read email. For composing a short email, they think iPhone is acceptable. (For composing a long email with attachments, it is impossible to do it by using any mobile device.) The main concern is they want to access internet (confirmed your point of not having a good web browser). They also do not want to carry two devices, that is BB and iPod.

I think Wayne is right and BB has reached a peak, but I think part of it is because of the poor reliability and performance track record they have had in recent months. Even this morning there was another outage where I, on my iPhone, was the only one receiving alerts from our internal systems. All the BB users were getting no mail again.

Eventually people will be concerned about the lack of reliability and redundancy in the BB system and that will cause businesses to question the value of the service as well.

That is where the Blackberry has the iPhone beat, the hardware keyboard is just better and more familiar in my opinion. Still, I agree with you RIM are going to struggle to hold onto customer with higher prices than competitors. Windows Mobile will also be devouring a piece of the RIM pie, with Exchange usage growing and cheaper devices that don’t have to have an expensive add-on just for syncing.

Reliability may also come into the equation for RIM. With their outages recently some may consider jumping ship to other platforms, and new users may steer clear.

The other thing on the iPhone I am not sold on more then anything else is the keyboard, granted over time you can get used to it, but my thumbs are going into shock not being used that much on the device

Again, I agree that there is a huge wait and see at this point to see what direction Apple and RIM go in. And we can also throw in Android for good measure to see what type of hysteria that is going to cause.

I will be going to WES 2008 this year, so maybe, just maybe, RIM has something up their sleeves we havent seen yet, who knows.

I agree that Blackberry is at it’s peak. I believe that Windows Mobile will gradually take over the corporate sector based on cost savings and Microsoft integration of products. I also believe that many consumers that can afford to will move to the iPhone. I will never use an iPhone because it doesn’t give me all of the business capabilities that I need and I imagine there are many more like me that need more options than what the iPhone provides. It is a very innovative product but too proprietary and heavily integrated with iTunes. The corporate sector will never adopt the iPhone as an enterprise device based on poor security control. It will be interesting to see where all of these players will be in about 3-5 years. My bet is that Windows Mobile will have the largest market share and Android will be a big player as well (competing with iPhone at the consumer level). Blackberry will always be there because organizations have invested way too much money in the hardware and software to just walk away from it.

Sprint actually has a really good deal for anyone who buys a Blackberry under their $99 per month unlimited Simply Everything Plan — their BIS service is included at no additional cost.

Problems that will start to appear once all these apps for iPhone are released is that other platforms will stagnate — both Palm and Blackberry are sure to lose developers.

Hey Mark I could be wrong — and you should definitely know because I think for a solid month I messaged you about how awful the iPhone was and would never take off — and here I am thinking of adopting it as my full time business phone…:-)

That being said, other than having an equally crappy browser, The TREO has HTML email, push mail, boatloads of 3rd party apps, push mail etc. COupled with Sprint’s very genererous, fast and affordable data plans, why would anybody pay double/month for blackberry for what they can get on a Treo (which also lets you tether 3g to a laptop for free?

I guess because it isn’t a brain dead setup so the masses are willing to pay for the simplicity.

In the last earnings call (April 4ish) – RIM pointed out that over 1/2 of their growth comes from consumers.

This area of growth, imho, is highly vulnerable to attack by the 3G iPhone.

Hard to tell if any of the iPhone launch delays are true or not since Apple is so secretive.

Seeing the articles surface this morning about the delays set my mind in motion. I’ve been wanting to write this for about two weeks.

Overall if as an 18 year user of Blackberry I’m seriously thinking of abandoning it for the iphone because of better iPhone browser and equal push mail, calendar, contacts (not there yet) — then I’m making the assumption that a lot of other users may as well.

We’ll have to see — but I’d be willing to bet that RIM won’t see market share this high ever again.

Great write up and all valid points to be made, but would you consider this post to focus on the consumer world or the business world, because one is drastically different from the other in several ways. Also a little side note, its not that the 3G Berry has been pushed back, I don’t believe AT&T planned on releasing theirs till the 3rd Quarter anyways and of course with the 3G iPhone that does make sense.

T

Lack of HTML email….

I mean – please. I know it may be tough to do but for us to rely on third party apps to do basic html email is painful.

My preference is text email — which is why I didn’t think of this missing feature earlier. But I think it’s an important and glaring Blackberry omission.