According to the latest RBC Capital Markets report, 56% of consumers looking to pick up a smartphone in the next three months having the iPhone 3G at the top of their list, with the BlackBerry Bold following up at 23%. Ouch. So does this mean the iPhone’s features are wowing buyers? Not quite. The biggest factor influencing these decisions is the announced price cut of $199 on the 8 GB model and $299 for the 16 GB iPhone 3G. The extra speed from 3G was a close second point of interest, while GPS was the third most important factor. It’s bizzarre, considering the BlackBerry 9000 will be covering all of these bases, too - T-Mobile Germany’s price point for the Bold has been revealed, putting it in the same ballpark as the iPhone. Maybe if we had clearer information on BlackBerry Bold pricing, folks would be more inclined to consider it a competitor to the iPhone…
[Via BlackBerry Cool]
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RIM is making a HUGE strategic blunder by not announcing (A) price and (B) release date, not to mention in being late relative to their biggest competitor. Not sure it would matter much to me anyways though, since it’s $45/mo for the bberry, whereas only $30/mo for the iPhone (if you want push calendar & contacts). Give me a price within $100 of the iPhone, release date in July/Aug and an equivalent monthly pricing to the iPhone, and I’d likely wait it out for the Bold. I’m sure I’m not the only one…
Good on ya, Eric. On the other hand, there are a lot of other folks who I’m sure won’t wait for the BlackBerry Bold out of sheer impatience. Regardless of the rates, BlackBerrys do a better job of compressing, and you’ll definitely be getting more bang for buck in your BB data plan.
Good point Simon about the data pricing. Although, the data compression does affect quality to some degree.
Personally, as someone who is focused on media capabilities, I simply must go iPhone. BlackBerry’s internet is just not cutting it for me.
You guys all have good points.
Yeah Eric, I was going to wait around until the Blackberry Bold came out since I was craving a new summer phone.
But since they have not released a price OR release date, I am leaning towards getting an iPhone 3G.
Plus, the iPhone will probably be cheaper and just more fun.
It seems funn to me that 56% of comsumers are picking the Iphone and because of teh price reduction, but they fail to realize that AT&T is jacking up their monthly rate at $10/month. This equates to a $120 increase per year. Do the MATH people, your not getting a deal here!!!
Yes, the iphone monthly rates are $10 more expensive now but I’ve been paying that much for my Blackberry plan for 2 years. So, since I need a new phone and since I simply cannot wait any longer and there are no announcements about the Blackberry Bold, I am getting an iPhone on Friday. My company is on Exchange so I will still get push email. In the end, there is really no additional cost to me.
Kim you’ve brought up an interesting point about the iPhone for enterprise. I’m curious to see if the iPhone will do just as good as the BlackBerry with regards to an all-around enterprise solution.
Am I the only one who is truly impressed by the 600 plus mhz on the blackberry and the hs.. I have the iphone currently and the htc tilt and the iphone is great since I use it mostly as an ipod, but as a business tool as far as typing it blows. Also there is no mms on the iphone.. Just a pretty piece might as well buy a gucci hat instead.
“Craving a summer phone”? Are you serious. Get a girlfriend.
Why are people forgetting the basics? This is a phone! The Iphone is terrible unit from what I hear. Terrible quility, coverage and dropped calls. Its just a modified Itouch Ipod with a cheap phone added. How long will it take now with SDK released that someone will hack the Ipod into a Iphone? Android soon with Gphones? Hmmmm….
the bold is worth the wait, the rogers plans, well there all BS anyways, you will be paying more for your iPhone plans believe me, blackberry’s on the other hand..handled data and email better, especialy email it uses less data., anyways let your fingers make the decision, personally I am waiting for the javelin…I klnow they say no 3g, but early on they said the bold, no 3g either
From a review I read this morning in the Wall Street Journal I don’t think the iPhone 3G will penetrate the enterprise as much as some think. The issue will be battery life. While this particular review was overall very positive, the writer, who has been testing the phone for 2 weeks, reported that it sucks up the battery. He was at 20% remaining battery life by early afternoon. Of course all 3G phones do this, but the difference is that the others have replaceable batteries. The new iPhone (still) does not.
I believe this will be a deal killer for business travelers or those working in the field who rely on their phone to be connected to the office.
I really wanted to get an iPhone, and I still might, but based on this alone I will be waiting for the Blackberry release to compare performance.
Love Guru: Your comment about dropped calls and coverage is an operator specific problem remember. So just because it works like that on AT&T has nothing to do with the phone. But Android on GPhones, sign me up!
In terms of iPhone for enterprise, I agree with the above readers who stated that the keyboard isn’t sufficient for fast push email enterprise. My thumbs are too fat.
This ongoing discussion about the value of the iPhone in the enterprise space is also happening amoungst enterprise software developers.
I encourage those on LinkedIn to participate in Rove CEO’s, Rob Woodbridge, Q&A discussion on wireless development strategy for Apple.
Here is the LinkedIn Q&A link:
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/enterprise-software/TCH_ENT/252850-6752?goback=%2Ehom
Also, feel free to add the following to your profile:
QuicklyBored Group (just created)
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/124136/252A8D2A0CFD
BlackBerry Cool Group (lots of users)
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/106223/7BA6F576A8DF
My profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kylemcinnes
Kyle:
Operator specific! no that would be phone specific as iphones are on ATT, and therefore averyone will experience the same shitty service and dropped calls.
Everyone in the United States. What about Britain, Canada and the 70 other countries where the iPhone is sold?
The US is the largest economy but it isn’t the only economy.
Kyle, I actually WOULD blame the iPhone for poor call quality, dropped calls and weak signal strength. I’ve been with AT&T for over three years and in that time, I’ve had several different phones, including two iPhones (I “upgraded” when they dropped the price on the higher-capacity model). Call quality and signal strength are significantly lower on the iPhone than they were when I had a Blackberry. And that’s all on the same carrier.
I think the iPhone’s great for web browsing, playing MP3s and having a slick-looking OS. But as a phone, it’s left me totally unimpressed. Personally, I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed that the Blackberry Bold doesn’t turn out to be a dud.
Interesting point Jason. Great comment.
It’s highly possible that BlackBerrys have put more money into higher quality materials for their devices that would lead to fewer calls dropped. Eg Better antenna design and layout.
To be totally honest, this is getting out of my technical understanding of the engineering behind the devices.
Perhaps someone can shed some light on the tech spec differences that proves that BlackBerrys would get better coverage etc.
Walt Mossberg claims that the iPhone 3G has improved the problems you’re mentioning. Check out his review of the iPhone:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121555740704037313.html?mod=blogs
“One side benefit to 3G is that in some areas, voice coverage improves. At my neighborhood shopping center, where the first iPhone got little or no AT&T service, the iPhone 3G registered strong coverage. But I still found that calls regularly broke up on some major streets. In New York City, riding in a taxi along the Hudson, one important call was dropped three times on the new iPhone. Finally, I borrowed a cheap Verizon phone and got perfect reception.”
After reading the comments above, I suspect they were all computer generated. Far too many polite and intelligent comments to make sense for an open post.
I have two major issues with the iphone. But before I disclose them, it’s only fair to say, that I have an ipod, and I pretty much use it every day. I love the hell out of it. So much so, and this brings me to my first issue with the iphone, replacing the battery was a real pain. I don’t know how apple has gotten away with treating a battery as something that only a service center can handle. I replaced my own battery the second time, but I can’t imagine going through that grief on the road with a phone.
The real deal breaker is somewhat ironic. I have an old 15GB ipod, and I can’t imagine downgrading to 8GB, especially if you add the storage required from taking pictures and watching the odd video. Apple has spoiled me to the point where I can’t go back again. The new OS on the Bold will handle the 16GB memory cards when they hit the market. In the meantime, at least I can swap memory on the fly, if needed.
My current phone died, and frankly, I’m so sold on the Blackberry Bold specs, cpu, e-mail, gps, oh and don’t forget wi-fi, to help cut down on the cost of Rogers’ network, that I’ll wait until July 25th, I hope.
I use a Blackberry 88XX, which I bought shortly before the first iPhone’s release (like, a week), after reading earliy reviews. Today, I spent some time with a working iPhone 3G demo at AT&T. I was very unimpressed. However, my focus is business use. The Microsoft Exchange compatibility is the main reason I checked it out (seonc reason is I always wanted one but I did not want to pay the cost of the original), but the iPhone’s user interface is more video game than smartphone, and less intuitive than the Blackberry. I am new to Blackberry (this is my first one), and am no fanboy, but in about 10 mins, during which I thought I would be wowed, I was put off. Typing is difficult, no turn by turn GPS…you can’t even search the contacts except by scrolling. Finally, though the iPhone is a marvel to the eye, it looks far too fragile for my use.
I have to say that the 3G was fast (I disabled wifi) and the internet browser is beautiful. I think the Bold will have HTML email and a better browser, so I will wait for it.
The cost of iPhone’s data plans, in my mind, is low. iPhone users are far heavier internet users (on their phones, I mean) than users of any other phones. I read that somewhere today so it must be true. Switching from a Blackberry to an iPhone (on AT&T) with push mail is a zero sum.
I’d rather be Bold than cool.
I hate to double post, but I should add that I also disabled the 3G. In real world I would probably be using an iPhone 3G in GSM mode to get the 10 hours talk time. The wifi and 3G settings are two menus deep, easy to find (though the AT&T rep told me it was impossible to disable 3G, duh). Because the iPhone’s browser is so rich, it really, really crawls in GSM mode. I loaded google news on my GSM Blackberry and the iPhone in GSM mode simultaneously, and the Blackberry was at least 3x faster. No, it didn’t look the same, but the information was there (and I am using a jacked up German Vodaphone OS on my Blackberry, which is buggy).
Apple is much better at marketing to consumers than Blackberry, so while I am sure that the story, above, is correct, I am not sure that it answers any relevant question. Blackberry outsells iPhone about 8 or 9 to 1 worldwide. Asking consumers which phone they want to buy and hearing iPhone from most is about like calling corporate IT departments and asking which phone they would buy. The answer would be different, prescisely because the two brands are aimed, at least so far, at different markets.
Just my opinion…
QuicklyBored just got its hands on the iPhone 3G and our sister site BlackBerry Cool will be getting its hands on the BlackBerry Bold.
Stay tuned for the most in-depth comparisons of the two on the internet.
Also, like Charlie, I hate to double post, but the typing has been a bit of a bummer so far.
With the Bold you will be able to tether it to a laptop, maybe not a major concern for everybody, but the iPhone will not allow it. Even though you have to pay 10 bucks more for the data plan. Also the Bluetooth capabilities of the iPhone are severly limited, to only calls. With Bluetooth on the Bold you will be able to tether you laptop to to Internet and still make a call. Something you will not be able to do with the iPhone.
Get ready for BB 9000. It is gona come in USA at the end of this month. Got a Email from a Canadian compnay ( SNtraders ) and the said that they r getting few units within few days but they didnt confirm the price but acording to them it will B around 650$
http://sntradersonline.com/phone_details.php?product_id=snp863