|
Monday January 22, 2007
|
I wanted to write a little screed to stamp down a particularly idiotic Internet meme: that because Apple's iPhone will push Yahoo! email, it is somehow a threat to RIM's Blackberry business.
That's like saying the new Ferrari sportscar is a threat to the white box truck in package delivery. It's mind-bogglingly stupid and shows absolutely no knowledge of the enterprise market.
Businesses buy Blackberries for the following reasons:
- Blackberries integrate easily with existing corporate e-mail and PIM servers, such as Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. The iPhone will not do this at all. Unless you are Yahoo!, Yahoo! Mail is not a corporate email solution; most companies also do not use POP3/IMAP because they want the additional management and workgroup features of the corporate systems.
- Blackberries have excellent remote management, security, policy and provisioning features. Your corporate IT department can control what you do with your Blackberry, tweak every feature, block what they want to block and even wipe the device remotely.
- Blackberries have "no-fun options." Your average law firm does not want to buy a video iPod. It wants to buy a no-nonsense messaging device that does not encourage goofing off. The iPhone is basically imprinted with a gigantic neon light that says, "Goof off!"
- Blackberries respect that enterprises may have long-term carrier agreements with various wireless carriers, may want to accept multiple bids from multiple carriers, or otherwise leverage a competitive carrier landscape. With the iPhone, it's Cingular or nothing, which would put corporate business managers in a weak position to negotiate.
What I'm saying about RIM also holds for Motorola's Good Mobile Messaging product and for Windows Mobile. With the iPhone, Apple is trying to create a genuinely new market: the consumer entertainment smart phone. That's something that Motorola and Samsung, among others, have been taking stabs at -- and you may see the iPhone biting into individual consumer purchases of, say, the Motorola Q.
But the iPhone is absolutely no threat to RIM and Good's core enterprise business. And I see that as a very good thing: Apple isn't stealing pieces of the smartphone pie. They're trying to make the pie bigger for everyone.
|
|
|
Stumble
Digg
del.icio.us
Slashdot
January 22, 2007 5:28 PM
I'm surprised that people have eben said this. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm impressed at how amazing the iPhone is, but the iPhone and the Blackberry are obviously aimed at completely different markets and are for completely different people. (not to mention most BBs are still cheaper than the iPhone, I'm afraid, and most companies using BBs for its employees aren't with Cingular for their service, but that's another issue with being locked into carriers that I think you very much understand, Sascha)
They're just so different it's kind of apalling that people would try to say they're at all for the same group of people. I can see some of the iPhone technologies make their way to the Blackberry, and I hope to see that (not to mention other phone manufacterers) but I don't see the iPhone replacing the BB at all, whatsoever. I'm curious about your assertion that it might bite into sales of the Motorola Q or the Samsung Blackjack though, since they're trying definitely to attack the BB market.
I love your analogy about the big box truck and the ferrari though. I can see people now saying "but the ferrari is so much FASTER!" Yeah, sure...try cramming your furniture in the back of that ferarri, though.
January 22, 2007 5:53 PM
Very interesting!
January 23, 2007 8:18 AM
You defiantly hit the nail on the head. iPhone is a consumer based product that may only impact slightly on the BlackBerry Pearl sales but have zero effect on corporate.
January 23, 2007 5:51 PM
Today, the Blackberry and iPhone are very different. If anything, the iPhone is the Blackberry for the rest of us, that is, non-Enterprise customers. But that's today. Over time, things meld and change and sometimes its hard to predict where they will turn out. I'm sure the makers of electric typewriters weren't all that worried when the first PC's came out either.
January 23, 2007 6:36 PM
I think the iPhone will be a threat to smartphones that play music and video files, but not cut into their marketshare until their price points are closer. $50 SLVR or $500 iPhone: hmm... I for one still have to think before making that choice. And there's the group of people who like the look and feel of their Motorolas and Samsungs. Yup, I agree that the iPhone expands the market. I'm looking forward to the trickle-down effects -- new phones, new third-party products, eventually lower prices.
January 24, 2007 9:53 AM
The couple of analyst comments I read about this did not say the iPhone was necessarily a threat to corporate Blackberry use -- it was a big threat to RIM's push into the consumer space (ala Pearl). RIMs stock was taking a hit because this new growth area was suddenly seeing a tangible competitor.
I don't think RIM and the Blackberry are going anywhere anytime soon because of their corporate ties. However, I'd be sweating a little if I were Palm. I love their PalmOS-based Treos, but the iPhone is definitely a shot across the bow.
January 24, 2007 12:57 PM
The correct point is made.
The threat to RIM and Blackberry is to their expansion toward consumer users and even some of the smaller business users. That is a tiny fraction of where their sales are.
Motorola, Samsung, etc that are chasing that consumer user and small biz user are the ones who should be concerned because it looks like the iPhone does what they are shooting for in a more intuitive way with a gee whiz factor thrown in for good measure.
I'm a probable iPhone buyer if the cost doesn't cold feet me because I don't really need push email. Most of the time I'm away from the office I'm not interested in real-time email receipt. I do however on occasion use my phone to check email when I think there is a need and sometimes need to check a website but don't want to lug a laptop. If I can leave my iPod mini at home, all the better.
But I don't see the crackberry addicts working above me being happy with an iPhone in its current feature set and if I were to get promoted to their level, it probably wouldn't work for me either. But for what I do, it looks close to perfect.
January 29, 2007 11:12 AM
Look I agree that Yahoo! Push e-mail may not be a solution to most people but you can just get a forward from your corporate e-mail to yahoo mail.
1) Steve said the iPhone WILL integreate with Exchange through IMAP and other e-mail servers through either POP or IMAP. I am sorry to say but we don't live in a Microsoft world when it comes to e-mail servers, every other e-mail server (Sendmail, Postfix, Exim) EXCEPT Microsofft uses the POP/IMAP as they are de jure standards.
2) OK, I agree with this, as far as the current stuff shows, the iPhone can't be managed like a Blackberry. This may change but it may not, you didn't mention though that the only way to do this management is to get an expensive BES with user licenses.
3) Who says iPods are just about fun? Companies like National Instruments and Stanford that have given thier employees (NT) and students (stanford) iPods. In the Stanford model, the iPods were to have fun but also to listen to professor lectures in podcast form that could add media like photos and video. Also, many research has shown that "goofing off" for a little while and take little breaks is actually a good thing as employees that need to be creative can let thier subconsciuos solve the problem they face.
4) While it is true that Blackberries are available for more carriers and are usually not locked down to 1 carrier, it is not always the case. If you have a GSM blackberry, for the most part you can only choose Cingular or T-Mobile and that sexy new Blackberry Pearl is locked to T-Mobile right now, just like the iPhone is locked to Cingular. On the CDMA side, your choices are the same, (for the most part) Verizon or Sprint and both are dicks when it comes to getting a Blackberry to go from either VZ to Sprint or vice-versa. VZ is notorious for crippling the phone so basic functionality like Bluetooth DUN is not available maybe bluetooth syncing is locked out too. I don't like Cingular bieng the only carrier (just 1 of the reasons I still praise the landline)but not all blackberries are able to be freely accessible regardless of carrier.
In conclusion, yes the Blackberry may be safe, but that stock drop after Apple's annoucement may have something behind it. While Apple has NEVER done a good job with business, in fact they have done a terrible job, the iPhone may give some CEOs or execs in a company the desire to get one while the rest of the pawns in the organization "suffer" with the crackberry. I feel this is where it may end up in business, the yahoo "push" e-mail that is free and doesn't have the inexorbantly high prices of the blackberry (BES, user licenses, and blackberry corporate e-mail with phone time plans for users) may win over some influential business execs but may stay out where the peons are (and where blackberry mainly is) for the time bieng.
February 12, 2007 5:52 AM
Hi Gearlog
I noticed you write about Blackberries on your blog and thought I'd fill you in on Mobile Answers, a phone-friendly version of Answers.com for your Treo, Blackberry or any other smartphone.
Clarify unfamiliar terms you come across in emails from your phone. Settle trivia bets while you're sitting at the bar. Get familiar with your surroundings on business trips. Mobile Answers is located at mobile.answers.com and makes available the massive, virtual library at Answers.com: 4 million topics, in your pocket, without any downloading.
Try it out, and if you like it, we'd love to see you blog about it. Feel free to pass this to fellow bloggers or submit your blog to the Answers.com Blog Directory.
Liz Cohen
Chief BlogWatcher
Answers.com(tm)"
Submit your blog to the Blog Directory.
February 23, 2007 9:09 PM
It's not marketed toward corporations.