Apple iPhone vs. RIM BlackBerry Storm

I don't own either of these devices but I'm a bit partial to Apple's iPhone because of its design and over all operability. For reasons only know to the voices in my head, I've never, umm, appreciated the BlackBerry.

 

However, this was prior to the BlackBerry having a touch screen and look similar to the iPod, so this appreciation could change for the better but, I still can't help but associate BlackBerry with business suites and the iPhone with the "Mac guy." Regardless, these two devices are hot items, one longer than the other. The burning question for some may be which one is better?

 

In the virtual halls of the World Wide Web, the general consensus is that RIM's BlackBerry Storm is not what was expected.

 

"It's not that the BlackBerry Storm is a bad phone," said Paul Carton, research director at ChangeWave Research. "It's just that the initial launch has glitches which have resulted in a mediocre satisfaction rating, while consumers are already trained to expect the very highest standards from their BlackBerries."

 

ChangeWave found, in a recent survey, that the Storm's satisfaction rating was similar to a midtier handset and considerably below that of people who own Apple's iPhone. Thirty-three percent of new Storm owners, for example, said they were "very satisfied" with the touch-screen smart phone, compared to 77 percent of iPhone owners who said the same thing in a July 2008 survey ChangeWave conducted less than a month after Apple launched the iPhone 3G.

 

Likewise, 14 percent of Storm owners said they were "unsatisfied" with their new BlackBerry, compared with five percent of iPhone buyers who gave the same response in July. The Storm is not all RIM has to offer, Carton said, as he argued that the Waterloo, Ontario-based company is in a strong position leading into 2009.

 

"For the first time in a year, RIM's next 90 days are looking very, very strong," said Carton, "even in relation to Apple. Overall, BlackBerry represents the top of the line. And although the Storm started off looking like a midtier smart phone in terms of its initial consumer reaction, that's not the end of the story."

 

When asked, 39 percent of consumers said they would buy a BlackBerry in the next 90 days up from 30 percent in September, which in turn was an increase over June's 23 percent. Apple's iPhone, meanwhile, captured just 30 percent of the planned smart phone purchases in the most recent survey, down from 34 percent in September and off dramatically from the whopping 56 percent in June.

 

Carton characterized these results as the "settling down" of consumer interest in Apple's device. "Yes, the industry is driven by new product releases, but the place that Apple is in now, that's a wonderful place to be," he said. "They'll have a great quarter [in iPhone sales], even in the midst of an unbelievably bad economy."

 

Even so, said Carton, "The ball has shifted back into BlackBerry's court. The demand [for BlackBerry] is there, that's part one," he added, referring again to the 39% share that RIM captured in the future buying plans survey. "The other side of the coin is that RIM has several different new models, not just the Storm. And their overall satisfaction rating is over 50%. RIM and Apple are the only ones at that level."

 

Apple and RIM will continue to battle it out for smart phone market share throughout 2009, Carton predicted. "The smart phone industry is big enough to support two monster winners," he said.

 

Reports of bugs and glitches within the Storm have been swirling around the newest release by RIM, however Carton thinks, "if RIM can rapidly fix its initial glitches and bugs, the survey shows that this new offering, along with RIM's other recently released models, will provide accelerated momentum in 2009."

 

And for those who forgot, Apple's iPhone also had problems when it first came out, with complaints about the phone's inability to hold a signal. On one tech site, a comment left by Theroot says, "[the] iPhone's e-mail is terrible. It goes to show you Apple is more about toys than business function."

 

This goes back to my initial statement of how I connect the BlackBerry line with business and the iPhone for pleasure. If I were to get the iPhone, not only would I want to download games and apps in addition to have the on-screen keyboard and IM capabilities, I would get it because I want to consolidate my devices, meaning put my music on the iPhone thus ridding the need for two devices, the iPod for music, photos, and videos and a phone for voice, text, and data.

 

Perhaps this means that a new device should be created to appease the business savvy with the "Mac guy" crowd or the young at heart.