Posted on June 20, 2007, at 1:50 PM .
The iPhone is surely the most anticipated cell phone ever, and will most likely go on to sell quite a few copies. It then makes sense to ask if RIM should consider making a BlackBerry email client for the iPhone (assuming Apple would allow that).
First, the advantage: RIM could gain incremental revenue from the sale of the software and the service to many of those iPhone users. One question is how many iPhone users will see push email as a priority. As analyst Robert Semple from Credit Suisse writes, “We do not believe the iPhone is aimed at smart phones, rather, it is designed to expand the high end of the traditional mobile phone market.â€
Continue reading ‘ThoughtPiece: Should RIM make a BlackBerry Client for the iPhone?’
Posted on June 13, 2007, at 7:39 AM .
Right now you must be feeling pretty good. You have a legendary brand name, the best marketing, the best devices, and soon you will have a magnet to attract people into your stores called the iPhone. Speaking of marketing, you seem to be everywhere. Last weekend while engaging in my usual ritual of watching sports on TV, I turned on a NASCAR race and I saw an AT&T car; I turned on the NBA finals, and it was being played at the AT&T Center.
You were smart to transition to a GSM network years ago. This is by far and away the most popular format in the world, which guarantees you the best selection of phones. You certainly get most of our beloved BlackBerry models first.
However, there’s one piece of the puzzle missing, which keeps you from totally dominating the U.S. wireless market.
Continue reading ‘ThoughtPiece: An Open Letter to AT&T’
Posted on June 6, 2007, at 7:04 AM .
Not too long ago I came across a fascinating article detailing at how Starbucks is not just an impressive business success story, but has changed popular culture along the way. The article lists several ways in which Starbucks has functioned as a “change agent,†including changing what we pay for coffee, our tastes, what we eat, how we order, how we meet, etc.
This started me thinking as to if and how our beloved BlackBerry has functioned as a change agent. I believe it has, in at least the following ways.
Continue reading ‘ThoughtPiece: The BlackBerry as Change Agent’
Posted on May 30, 2007, at 11:50 AM .
More than a few times someone has remarked to me something along the lines of: “what’s the big deal about the BlackBerry…all it does well is email.†To which I reply: “well, yeah…and all Peyton Manning does well is throw the football.†(For those of you more culturally inclined, I’ll say “well, yeah…and all Rembrandt did well was paint.â€)
Email is easily the most widely used application of the Internet, even more so than the World Wide Web with all of the cool sites like this one. In fact, email is probably the most important advance in person to person communication since the advent of the telephone. So a device that does portable email well is a pretty significant achievement, much like a portable phone. In retrospect, it seems like genius for RIM to have realized the market opportunity that existed and to have so successfully exploited it.
With all of the recent attention showered on the more exciting multimedia features it’s easy to take the email application for granted. Yet email remains a killer app in the mobile world, and one that establishes the BlackBerry as an entrenched competitor for years to come, no matter what the efforts of Microsoft and Apple.
Posted on May 23, 2007, at 7:58 AM .
Is it just me, or does it seem that every time a cell phone carrier releases a new device it comes off as something out of an old 3 Stooges movie?
There are the errors in execution. The release of a new product, especially a BlackBerry with a relatively high price point that will bring in the much coveted data revenue, should be a pretty big deal with any carrier. Yet company representatives are usually poorly informed about what should be a major business event and often different reps give out conflicting information to anxious consumers. Initial inventory to the stores often falls short of demand, and is unevenly distributed across the market footprint.
Continue reading ‘ThoughtPiece: Why Do Carriers Botch New Product Releases?’
Posted on May 16, 2007, at 8:50 AM .
Surely one of the most annoying aspects of everyday cell phone usage is simply retrieving your voicemail. David Pogue of the New York Times captures the experience in his usual good humor:
…the carriers make you listen to a woman who has evidently overdosed on Ambien. “You have. Seven. New. Messages. You have. Two. Saved messages. To listen to your messages, press 1. When you are finished, you may hang up, or press 5 for more options. I will now read the Manhattan White Pages.â€
Continue reading ‘ThougtPiece: Why BlackBerrys Need Random Access Voicemail’
