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BlackBerry Overtakes iPhone as Bestselling U.S. Smartphone in Q1

Given that Blackberry is available on most networks I'm not surprised. Also you can't easily unlock the iPhone and put in any SIM card you want, particularly useful international travel may well play apart - more so in other countries than the states ( who don't travel internationally as much as other countries ), that being said.

One single iPhone model to 'blame' for the fact that Blackberry has outsold Apple? Well, that's Apple problem isn't it. One size does not fit all.

RIMs profits increased this quarter, so its fantastic they are doing well. Their models are now moving in to consumer market, its not just for business.

I don't know why people are getting so upset about iPhone being outsold by RIM because, Apple, due to exclusivity and one model restrict themselves to a smaller potential market.
 
polaris20 said:
Rofl

Yeah, you're a business expert. Quick, Apple! Get this guy on the Board!
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Don't bother. I only go with winners with foresight.

Went through the same thing with Amiga fanbois. Who's laughing now?

I'll be around in five years while you'll all be extinct.

As if a lousy updated transistor radio or battery walkie-talkie was the future... only if you're twelve years old and were born yesterday.

"Today's" Apple iWonder... tomorrow's eBay $.99 trash.

:apple:
 
I want to see what the profit is for the iPhones sold vs. Blackberries sold.

If I ran Apple, I'd care more about the bottom line than quantity bragging rights.
 
polaris20 said:
I want to see what the profit is for the iPhones sold vs. Blackberries sold.

If I ran Apple, I'd care more about the bottom line than quantity bragging rights.
Click to expand...

An anecdote: GM pretty much held the lead in cars sold (I forget if it was in the world or US) until 2008. Toyota finally overtook them last year. But GM is now on the brink of not existing, while Toyota is taking its first losses in EVER. Market share is a nice bragging point in businesses like that, but being profitable and financially sound (not saddled with debt) is much more important. Apple could have probably dropped iPhone prices since it had $23 million in cash on hand, but that didn't happen. Instead, Apple just keeps chugging along and making money. Microsoft has more OS market share but isn't nearly as profitable.
 
I love all the Apple apologists popping up in this thread. Some of you are coming up with every little whiny excuse in the book on why the iPhone is selling less. The fact is, all of these "excuses" ("they only sell one model", "it's more expensive", etc.) are easily ammenable, but Apple refuses to change their business strategy. Other excuses, like ""it's only available on one carrier", is due to Apple's own greed. Well, too bad, deal with it.

The fact is, some of you fanboys would be waving the Apple banner high as heck if the roles were switched (iPhone the top seller) and would be mum on all these excuses you were giving out now.

Face it, the iPhone is very slick and has an incredible user experience, but some of it is just too gimicky to be taken seriously. The Blackberry is not flashy, but it is a very solid phone that the business community (which is huge) can rely on. The Blackberry's sales may not be front-page newsworthy, but they are incredibly steady. The best sellers on the App Store are games (that people probably play for a few days, then forget), go figure.
 
WestonHarvey1 said:
The price argument is very compelling for people who just want a good portable email machine. The iPhone was the smartphone for "the rest of us", but I think there's a lower tier, a "rest of the rest of us" who are moving up from RAZRs and like the idea of email and web access.

Still, I wonder how much effect the myth of the iPhone being hard to type on affects things. It is a complaint I still hear from people who haven't tried it. I usually win in a race against my friends with Blackberries.
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I have to admit. Everyone who sees my iphone but never used it always attack the keyboard. But suprisingly it's very easy to type on the iphone. Especially since it adapts to your particular typing style. I know a lot of people turn off the auto correction, but I like it. It's very handy. I do wish however there was a spell check function you could run against an email or a long text message before sending it.
 
Personally I think this is great, if RIM & Apple keep neck and neck we should see some great innovations on both sides. Similar to Canon & Nikon both keeping each other on their toes.
 
AT&T as the iPhone's sole carrier is going to continue to dog it's success. I live in a region with NO AT&T, and quite frankly, the new Blackberries aren't exactly bricks, either. Something substantial is going to have to happen if Apple wants to keep it's iPhone alive.
 
Michael CM1 said:
An anecdote: GM pretty much held the lead in cars sold (I forget if it was in the world or US) until 2008. Toyota finally overtook them last year.
Click to expand...

This was just in the US. Toyota has held the crown for top sales in the world for a long time.

Michael CM1 said:
But GM is now on the brink of not existing, while Toyota is taking its first losses in EVER....
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The problem with the GM analogy is that GM, plain and simple, made very crappy cars. They relied on customer loyalty for way too long, as they plopped out cars that were engineered to be obsolete or breakdown within 5-6 years. Blackberry, otoh, is a very respectable company. They do not produce garbage like GM had. Their phones are very solid and reliable.
 
dornoforpyros said:
Personally I think this is great, if RIM & Apple keep neck and neck we should see some great innovations on both sides. Similar to Canon & Nikon both keeping each other on their toes.
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Exactly. Bring on the competition. As we can see, competition is already paying off with firmware 3.0. And Apple really has to release the shackles of AT&T. This may have been a good partnership for 1-2 years, but now it is really hurting the iPhone's growth and development.
 
kas23 said:
Face it, the iPhone is very slick and has an incredible user experience, but some of it is just too gimicky to be taken seriously. The Blackberry is not flashy, but it is a very solid phone that the business community (which is huge) can rely on.
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I'm a huge iPhone fan, and I wouldn't want to be without mine, but I agree. For one thing, Apple needs to provide a way other than Exchange to remotely wipe the iPhone if it's lost or stolen. They also need to provide a desktop app other than iTunes to manage the iPhone. For many people in corporate IT, relying on iTunes for this makes the iPhone seem more like an iPod than a business device.
 
gvegastiger said:
Its easier to outsell any phone manufacturer if you are giving your phones away. Without the giveaways RIMM wouldn't have taking first place.
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I'd agree to an extent also - if Apple were to promote the iPhone the same way, with incentives and such, I think the chart would look different. I've have seen loads and loads of Black Berry incentives and adverts, and so few on the iPhone I could count them on one hand.

paul.b.davis said:
Interesting to note that the iPhone is still beating out the BlackBerry Storm, which indicates that in the touch screen market, the iPhone is still on top.
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I noticed that as well.. RIM tried to hype the Storm A LOT - and it's still behind the iPhone.

kas23 said:
Exactly. Bring on the competition. As we can see, competition is already paying off with firmware 3.0. And Apple really has to release the shackles of AT&T. This may have been a good partnership for 1-2 years, but now it is really hurting the iPhone's growth and development.
Click to expand...
The way they'll be able to hit Stride No. 2 is with Verizon - and that won't happen until any LTE dev comes along. I agree that AT&T is holding them back. I know several people - myself included - use Verizon and am not keen on the idea of switching.
 
kas23 said:
This was just in the US. Toyota has held the crown for top sales in the world for a long time.



The problem with the GM analogy is that GM, plain and simple, made very crappy cars. They relied on customer loyalty for way too long, as they plopped out cars that were engineered to be obsolete or breakdown within 5-6 years. Blackberry, otoh, is a very respectable company. They do not produce garbage like GM had. Their phones are very solid and reliable.
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Not according to this:

http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2009082
 
bbplayer5 said:
Shouldnt be shocking. Everyone is waiting for the new iphone release.
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Upon reading this, I thought to myself "well yeah of course, that makes sense". But then I thought about it a little more and thought....outside of these forums and mac enthusiasts, how many people are pretty sure there is a new iphone coming?

Most people have no idea there is going to be a new iphone, I would guess. To back up my theory, just look at all people on here who sold their original iphone on eBay right before the '08 WWDC. Some of those phones were going for top dollar. Now you could make the argument that those who were paying $600 $700 $800 for the original iphone were doing so because they wanted the phone but didn't want to be in a contract. But I don't think that was very many people.

Other facts (based on my experience) include, if I am standing in line for anything, and I know notice that a person next to me has an iphone, I will occasionally say "hey getting excited about the new one coming out". They look at me like I have no idea what I am talking about. I've even had similar responses from friends who are mac people as well.

To sum it up, I don't think Apple getting outsold by Blackberry is because everyone is holding out until the new one comes out.
 
Goona said:
Let me get this the iPhone has a quality assurance problem but yet leads in cusomer satisfaction, lol.
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Sure. Apple saves money by not doing extensive QA at the factory. Instead, they let the customers use up their own precious time bringing the bad units back to the stores.

Apple cheerfully gives a replacement unit, and the customer goes away feeling like they've been well taken care of. The unit is then actually fixed, QA'd and recycled for the next person.

Win-win for Apple all around. Best scam on the planet. :cool:
 
kdarling said:
Sure. Apple saves money by not doing extensive QA at the factory. Instead, they let the customers use up their own precious time bringing the bad units back to the stores.

Apple cheerfully gives a replacement unit, and the customer goes away feeling like they've been well taken care of. The unit is then actually fixed, QA'd and recycled for the next person.

Win-win for Apple all around. Best scam on the planet.
Click to expand...

So let me get this, Apple is the only company taking part in this scam?
 
I want an iPhone

But I have Verizon.

After a change in jobs, I have found an increased need for a smartphone of some form.

I don't want to change my entire family over to AT&T (whose service is not as good as Verizon in my area) just to get an iPhone.

If Apple had not locked themselves into AT&T, I'd have bought one. I'm sure my husband would have bought himself one as well.

NOT having the iPhone available across all carriers is a mistake.
 
I read this on engadget earlier today and at first I said, oh cool, that's interesting.

But the facts are clear that this isn't necessarily a fair fight. Those points have been made so no need to repeat them.

Personally I think BBs are very productive for the business minded. A BB to most users is just a mobile office. The iPhone, is basically an entertainment device. That's a fairly general statement, so I'm sure there is exceptions, but I wouldn't go buying a BB excepting to have a great multimedia experience, but I would if I was on a budget and wanted my email pushed to my phone.

I don't really think Apple considers this news, nor do they really care.

I want to see the competition once Apple isn't tied to At&t and the LTE (4G) service is available. Then carriers will have to start beating other carriers on price and service and on top of that, other manufacturers will have to compete directly to the iPhone and not beside it like G1 on T-Mobile and the BB Storm on Verizon. Does anyone think either of those would even be close to iPhone sales if they were all available to all the carriers? I sure don't.
 
Nancy D. said:
But I have Verizon.

After a change in jobs, I have found an increased need for a smartphone of some form.

I don't want to change my entire family over to AT&T (whose service is not as good as Verizon in my area) just to get an iPhone.

If Apple had not locked themselves into AT&T, I'd have bought one. I'm sure my husband would have bought himself one as well.

NOT having the iPhone available across all carriers is a mistake.
Click to expand...

However, for the time being it was the right choice. Knowing that the 4G network would be up and running in the next couple years, Apple had the chance to sell a large volume of phones at a higher cost because they wouldn't have to meet the demands of both verizon and at&t and the plan rates. Basically they positioned themselves for a steady increase in units sold instead of just instant market saturation.

1. Edge iPhone - a great product, and a smartphone breakthrough but it lacked 3G, which meant speed. (sorta)
2. iPhone 3G - adopts both new customers who waited and people who upgraded, so even more units sold for a product update.
3. iPhone (2009) - newer features on an OS that people have really been waiting for - hopefully camera upgrade, video, and mobile OS X 3 has some really great upgrade features.
4. iPhone (2010) now has the potential to open to both carriers or at least decide which carrier to go with. Also the LTE (4G) network will start to form drawing this opportunity.
5. 4G network running, Verizon switched over to the GSM based network, Apple can make 1 phone and complete saturate the market.

That's basically a good 5+ years of steady adoption of this product. They know ultimately this phone will sell large numbers once unlocked to carriers, but at that time they will most likely have to be much more competitive with price and service plans and features.

Just a thought.
 
xbjllb said:
Don't bother. I only go with winners with foresight.

Went through the same thing with Amiga fanbois. Who's laughing now?

I'll be around in five years while you'll all be extinct.

As if a lousy updated transistor radio or battery walkie-talkie was the future... only if you're twelve years old and were born yesterday.

"Today's" Apple iWonder... tomorrow's eBay $.99 trash.

:apple:
Click to expand...

We'll all be extinct? Only a fool pledges blind allegiance to any platform without keeping an eye on all technologies......yourself included.

Apple gone? Fine, I'll use something else. MS gone? Fine, I'll use something else. Are you that crippled that you must feel the need to pick the "winning team"?
 
kas23 said:
I love all the Apple apologists popping up in this thread. Some of you are coming up with every little whiny excuse in the book on why the iPhone is selling less. The fact is, all of these "excuses" ("they only sell one model", "it's more expensive", etc.) are easily ammenable, but Apple refuses to change their business strategy. Other excuses, like ""it's only available on one carrier", is due to Apple's own greed. Well, too bad, deal with it.

The fact is, some of you fanboys would be waving the Apple banner high as heck if the roles were switched (iPhone the top seller) and would be mum on all these excuses you were giving out now.

Face it, the iPhone is very slick and has an incredible user experience, but some of it is just too gimicky to be taken seriously. The Blackberry is not flashy, but it is a very solid phone that the business community (which is huge) can rely on. The Blackberry's sales may not be front-page newsworthy, but they are incredibly steady. The best sellers on the App Store are games (that people probably play for a few days, then forget), go figure.
Click to expand...

And other people like to completely ignore the fact that Apple once again isn't trying to get the numbers, but instead is concentrating on quality and profit. Which, unless I failed Business 101 (and I didn't) is really the idea of business; making money (which comes with producing a quality product).

If that's an excuse, then sure! Okay.
 
archipellago said:
Well, I think that the iPhone brought the smartphone idea to lots of people who previously would never have considered one. Me included...

Having owned a 3G and then got rid of it I still liked the idea of 'multi function device'

I now have a Nokia E71 that does all I need device wise. Maybe not quite as elegantly or intuitively but still very good.

The total cost of ownership is less than 50% what I was paying for the iPhone.. and yes I still get unlimited internet.... and tethering!
Click to expand...

What country/carrier are you using, and did you change carriers as well as phones? Without this additional info your claims are just gas.
 
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