April 2, 2008 9:11AM
BlackBerry, iPhone, Treo — Which do you Prefer?
By Alexis Glick
At the top of Money for Breakfast this morning, I interviewed three experts (Steve Gelsi from the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch, Dan Ackerman, senior editor of CNET.com and our own Eric Bolling, a Fox Business contributor), on the competition between Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry.
Later today RIM reports earnings. Yesterday, RIM announced a partnership with XM Satellite to add more bells and whistles. Did you know that RIM’s stock price is up 156% in one year? In a battle between the iPhone and BlackBerry who will win? Where does the Palm’s Treo stand in today’s competition? Will yesterday’s announcement from Sprint Nextel about their new phone called the Instinct affect competition?
Watch the video and tell us which device do you prefer? The BlackBerry, iPhone, Treo or none of the above. If you have frustrations, what are they?
Comment by Bob Norkus
Apr 2nd, 2008 at 10:28 am
Hello Alexis: Early on I purchased a Treo before they became the rage. Still love my 650 but have my eye on the IPhone. Unfortunately, the Treo of late, in my opinion, is not as exciting as either the Blackberry or the IPhone. I perceive the Blackberry to be more of an email device and the IPhone to be King. I also have an ITouch which is great fun and attracts me to the IPhone. In fact, the innovation of Apple with these devices is causing me to look at all Apple’s overall product line with interest. I think I am going to take the plunge for the IPhone once the memory is increased. Best Regards, IBob
Comment by Jimmy
Apr 2nd, 2008 at 11:23 am
I have not used the iPhone yet but as an IT administrator for a global company, blackberry is more user-friendly and stable than Palm Treo.
Comment by Justin
Apr 2nd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
iPhone all the way. When the app store is up and running this summer, it will be untouchable. I guess it depends on what features are important to you though.
Comment by chuck harrison
Apr 2nd, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Honestly I would love to learn and play with a Blackberry. I played with a Iphone when I was at an Apple shop in San Antone,Texas. I was real impressed with Iphone too. But a Blackberry Smartphone I would love to have. Cuz I heard so much about the Blackberry.
Comment by Davud V
Apr 2nd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Good Afternoon Beautiful Alexis,
I use both the Blackberry (work related) and Iphone (play) on a daily basis. Also very familar and used the Treo. By far the Blackberry is the most user friend device for folks that need to focus in the essentials of business and email management. The Iphone while a great device for media applications is not user friendly for email. I find the touch screen very tiresome on composing emails. Also, I would have to agree with Jimmy (above comment) regarding the Treo as it can tend to be unstable and freeze/lock-up on occassion.
Regards,
Your Dave
Comment by Chris
Apr 2nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I have a Moto Q (windows mobile) & I hate it. I have to reset it every day at least once & it has, on more than one occasion, locked up so bad I had to remove the battery to get it to reset. I need an iPhone.
BTW, you might want to check your spelling in the article, it’s Treo not Trio.
Comment by Saeed Khan
Apr 3rd, 2008 at 7:51 am
Being a professional user i can say iPhone is no where around BlackBerry. BlackBerry rocks like any thing!! Using BlackBerry Curve 8300 and more then happy to have when i switched back from iPhone.
Comment by Yonah
Apr 4th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Alexis,
The wireless internet market can be divided into three segments: a)Text Kiddies - The hipsters and kids who grew up on IM and texting and as adults now have the income to buy these toys. b) The Corporate market that’s supported by corporate IT c)The prosumer market - i.e. independent professionals who need serious connectivity but don’t have the budget to have a dedicated IT staff manage it for them.
a - is becoming apple’s baby and pushing out previous success stories like the SideKick from Danger.
b - is, has, and probably will be RIM’s baby for a long time. Especially now that RIM has incorporated Wi-Fi into their devices. Within 6-18 months, corporate desk phones might start being replaced with RIM Wi-Fi VoIP solutions.
The iPhone doesn’t play here yet, and even with the advent of enterprise integration coming this summer, they still have a ways to-go, simply because heavy e-mail use really requires a keyboard - which the iPhones lack. RIM’s e-mail delivery and realiability (despite the recent outages) are still levels above the iPhone’s. That being said, as otheres mention above, once the iPhone SDK wielding masses wind up creting VoIP, better messaging, and other solutions for the iPhone, RIM will have to watch its back.
c) - this segment is the battleground. It was domainated by Palm, but as Palm’s offerings became stale, both Apple and Rim are trying to gobble these people up. RIM has made some progress with its Curve and Pearl, and a lot of these people are snapping up iPhones like crazy. While Palm has sold a lot of centros, it looks almost dead in the water.
While I think there is enough disparity in the current market segments for RIM and Apple to both grow a lot this year, I see a battle royal coming in the next 18-24 months.