Quote:
Originally Posted by browna
Well, as mentioned today on Crackberry, as long as there is a need for physical keyboards, there will always be a Blackberry. And I don't see phyiscal keyboards going away, both for those not used to touching a screen, and, those who just need the keyboard (ie trying to text in a cab or something that bumps around or getting use to the feel of keys and being able to type with one hand). RIM has cornered the market there. As they have making all devices suitable, security and infrastructure wise, to the corporate market, obviously. The sacrifice is of course not having a wide open source or allow too much onto the phone/network that could compromise that security.
Don't get me wrong, the apps on IP and on Andriod are kind of neat, as are large screen and some of the specs are impressive. But for most, as long as the phone works, some neat basic apps make things easier (like Poynt, Google Maps), texting is available, and browsing the web is painless, those are still the core apps for over half the people with smartphones, I venture to say.
Of course, that will continue to evolve. Through all these latest releases, some of the neat features of phones make me think about swaying from BB...but then thinking how much I'd use those 7 homescreens, or various apps or heavy multimedia features, and then having to get used to a new type of touch screen, in the end its likely the BB Torch as the next phone...back to the keyboard, even if the OS doesn't have some of those bells and whistles that I may or may not use, on screens that may or may not actually make the phone too big (once again).
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I heard an interesting comment that I think bears repeating - the iPhone and Android devices are more like pocket computers. The Blackberry is a phone and communications device first and best.
The key issue for RIM is going to be convergence - are people going to continue to want portable computing and best-of-breed phones in separate packages? Or will they make tradeoffs to have a decent if unspectacular phone in their mobile computer?
More than likely there is enough demand in the market for both regardless. It doesn’t have to be an either-or argument. From a pure numbers perspective, I don’t think RIM will hold on to any kind of sizeable lead in the smartphone space, but they can be a strong third pillar in the mobile space without doubt.