BlackBerry’s Era May Be Ending. Thanks to iPhone.

[hcho3]

Blackberry is dying because they failed to innovate. It's not because of it's iphone. Blackberry had crappy browser for so many years and they never bothered to fix it. How about media player? Fail. How about apps? Fail. How about Screen? Too small. How about touch screen devices? Fail.

Blackberry devices were so overpriced for 299 dollars for a long period of time and they enjoyed their exclusive deal with enterprises for a long time. Since they failed to innovate, it is time for them to just be another palm. Push email is great, but they still lack on other things. Smart phone is more than just email device.

 

[rwilliams]

The last bastion for Blackberries is the fact that the phones offer tight security, where the memory card contents are encrypted, the phones are remotely wipe-able, and if a Blackberry doesn't see a network signal, after a bit it will remotely wipe.

The iPhone doesn't have all these security features, but it is gaining them.

Other than remote wipe capabilities, how is the iPhone gaining on BlackBerries in terms of security? The new Data Protection feature is nice (using the passcode to encrypt the hardware encryption keys), but supposedly, that still only protects email, attachments, and contacts. All other data can theoretically be accessed. But in my opinion, the biggest problem with iPhones in enterprise is that they still have to be tied to iTunes. Apple needs a better enterprise solution than iTunes.

In the near future, we MAY be allowing faculty and staff here to use devices running iOS 4 as officially approved mobile devices (thanks to Data Protection), but right now, BlackBerry is the only approved platform. Android phones are strictly off limits, though we do have quite a few people here using them who are smart enough to configure them for email, calendar, and contacts.

 

[steve2112]

Not until the iOS or Android adopt whole device encryption and some verification that a remote wipe actually took place. Most IT departments won't allow iPhone s or Android phones in until that is security level is possible.

Yep. I'm the admin for our Blackberry Enterprise Server at work. The level of control it gives over the handhelds is the main reason we use them. With BES, you can force encryption of all data, remotely wipe it, monitor employee usage, and much more. Until any other platform offers this kind of centralized control, it won't get approved for corporate usage. I know lots of employers allow stuff like iPhones, but a lot of employers like having the control something like BES gives.

 

[Irish Rose]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

They will continue their slow death untill they actually innovate and change/update their dinosaur looking OS and crappy phones.

As a former BB owner, I agree with you.

 

[hippo206]

I don't know......

I don't like BB, but internationally they are THE phone to have. During my last business trips to Indonesia, Korea and Hong Kong, I was surprised how many people use a BB. Actually, while I was there, I don't think I saw another business class phone other than a BB.

 

[entatlrg]

There was a time years ago that RIM and Palm negotiated working together. For whatever reason it fell through. Had that happened it may of helped RIM get more market share before the iPhone came on the scene.

Apple is good at producing products that make the competitors look like they're standing still. Hat's off to Apple for that, or imagine the horrible devices we'd have to use.

Now RIM has a LOT of catching up to do, time will tell if it's possible, they'll need to pull a rabbit out of a hat to make an impact I bet.

 

[Irish Rose]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

I don't know......

I don't like BB, but internationally they are THE phone to have. During my last business trips to Indonesia, Korea and Hong Kong, I was surprised how many people use a BB. Actually, while I was there, I don't think I saw another business class phone other than a BB.

Just because many people use a BB, doesn't make it the phone to have. Now a days, I see twice as many people using an iPhone than a BB.

 

[VenusianSky]

Until someone else comes up with a competitive enterprise solution, Blackberry will be around for some time. Corporations use Enterprise Server and issue Blackberry devices to their employees. It is big business for RIM. It has nothing to do with their phones or operating system. RIM got in the enterprise market early. Businesses don't move off things like this for no reason, nor does it happen overnight.

 

[_Matt]

Some people think BBM is the greatest thing to ever happen.

In my opinion, the difference in OS between BlackBerry and iPhone is too great that BlackBerry users will have a lot of hesitation switching to iPhone. At least that's how my friends act. They will play with my iPhone 4 for a second, say that Safari is so cool, but hand it back and claim that could never ever ever use a touchscreen smartphone.

iPhone needs to get that enterprise market and maybe some in-house iChat app or something. I think we'll see the death of BlackBerry then.

iPhone is a visual device. BlackBerry is a textual device. There's a huge difference from the consumer view.