Blackberry Users Look Longingly Toward iPhone and Android, Says Survey
Blackberry Users Look Longingly Toward iPhone and Android, Says Survey
Posted 03/15/2010 at 3:10pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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A new survey of smartphone users paints a pretty grim picture for RIM and their Blackberry line of smartphones. According to market research firm Crowd Science, 40% of blackberry users plan to swap their device for an iPhone come the end of their contract. And it’s not just the iPhone that has these normally reserved business types excited. The survey also indicates that 32% would be willing to trade in their Blackberry for a Google Nexus One.
Crowd Science also asked about how people use their phones, and this may provide some insight into why people seem ready to jump ship. According to the report, people want to use their phones for both business and personal use. Only 16% of Blackberry users say they use their device for personal matters. About two thirds of iPhone users report using the phone for at least some personal and business exercises.
If RIM has any magic left, they might want to bring it to bear. In contrast, over 90% of iPhone and Android users planned to stay with their platform of choice come the next upgrade. Let’s hope Blackberry OS 6.0 can turn some frowns upside down. It’s going to take more than good keyboards to fix this.
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MleB
March 16, 2010 at 6:33am
I don't know about OS6 - I'm still waiting for my Wireless Provider (Rogers) to provide OS5 for my 8520.
But one of the primary benefits to me (as a SOHO / personal user not on an unlimited data plan) with the RIM product is their data compression via their own servers - a benefit I cannot obtain with Apple or, I gather, Google. That said, I'm probably using less data on the Blackberry because of their terrible browser - an experience not found on an iPhone. Also, the crashes on the RIM servers over the past 6 months certainly reduces the data required - and the faith one has in RIM.
New phone? New OS? Nah. Just give Blackberry users a completely stable network and good, useable software. Then they may have a better chance of holding onto their users.
Clearasil
March 16, 2010 at 1:44am
There is nothing good about BlackBerry. The interface is unintuitive and annoying. It's difficult to quickly dial numbers. The desktop software is bloated, slow, and has minimal functionality but is a whopping 258MB. Updating the phone software is painful. I could go on and on.
BlackBerry will be the Palm of this decade. I'd be surprised to see it last more that three or four more years.
gokeefe
March 16, 2010 at 3:55am
Unintuitive and annoying? It barely looks different than an iPhone, you just use a wheel or touchpad to move around.
Difficult to dial numbers? You unlock the phone and start dialing, you don't need to open any app... how much simpler do you want it?
Updating the phone software is a long process certainly, but i don't see how it's any slower or more difficult to update than an iPhone/iPod. The BB update process gives you many options for what to update and what to skip, but you don't _have_ to do anything... click next a bunch of times and let it do its thing.
The 258MB download for the blackberry desktop software is only if you download the multilanguage installer with media manager. For simple english and without the media manager, it's around 90MB and barely 10MB larger than iTunes+QuickTime. And if your BB is connected to a BES, there is no need for the desktop software anyway.
In any case, i absolutely love my iPod Touch and the Appstore and all, but i would never trade my full qwerty BB 9000 for an iPhone. I send way too many emails and texts to tolerate that virtual keyboard garbage.
I could go on and on, but i'll just end by saying Apple has a long way to go before it will come even close to replacing the BB in any sort of work environment. RIM is going to be around for a long time to come.
$0.02
lunchbox73
March 16, 2010 at 6:37am
Agreed. A BlackBerry for an ordinary Joe may not be the greatest but in a corporate environment with Exchange it shines. We manage around 10 BBs with the BlackBerry Enterprise server at our company and no complaints over here.
Not a big fan of the original Storm I'll admit though...
wolf17
March 15, 2010 at 8:22pm
lol, I am definitely not trading in my blackberry for an iphone. Possibly the next generation of Android phones thou...
"Life is about living, not stressing" - a very smart girl :)
monkeyboyx
March 15, 2010 at 5:29pm
That’s great and all but If I can't remotely control your phone with corporate policy, remote update and or wipe your phone if you get fire or you lose it then I say NO WAY!!! Blackberry and Windows mobile is very easy to control remotely. Well that’s my two cents.
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