According to the latest RBC Capital Markets report, 56% of consumers looking to pick up a smartphone in the next three months having the iPhone 3G at the top of their list, with the BlackBerry Bold following up at 23%. Ouch. So does this mean the iPhone’s features are wowing buyers? Not quite. The biggest factor influencing these decisions is the announced price cut of $199 on the 8 GB model and $299 for the 16 GB iPhone 3G. The extra speed from 3G was a close second point of interest, while GPS was the third most important factor. It’s bizzarre, considering the BlackBerry 9000 will be covering all of these bases, too – T-Mobile Germany’s price point for the Bold has been revealed, putting it in the same ballpark as the iPhone. Maybe if we had clearer information on BlackBerry Bold pricing, folks would be more inclined to consider it a competitor to the iPhone…
A recent study of bank employees by Credant Technologies showed that a staggering 83% will be taking their BlackBerrys and mobiles with them on holiday, a third will be bringing their laptop, and a quarter would check their e-mail. In a lot of workplaces, this kind of mentality is certainly the norm, but wouldn’t it be nice to de-shackle the old ball and chain once in awhile? More progressive employers, like the Immigration Canada, are trying to cut down on BlackBerry burnout, but that’s apparently the exception rather than the rule. Summer’s here guys – who’s going to be checking their work e-mail while they’re at the cottage?
Hey folks, we’ve got a survey up for anyone who wants a snazzy free icon theme. The survey should take 10-15 minutes to complete, and asks a few basic demographic questions, a few questions about your BlackBerry and how you use it, and finally your thoughts on BlackBerry Cool. We’re hoping to cover all of the bases with this survey, and share the information with some of the big players in the BlackBerry world so they can better tailor their products to you. It’ll also help us here at BBCool to provide better coverage for the topics you care about. At the end of the survey, you’ll be given a link to download a new theme with an icy blue design.
NOTE: The downloads are in a RAR format, which is a compression method like ZIP. You need to nab a program like WinRAR to open them. We’ll try to get a ZIP version up soon, since it’s a little more well-known. Our themes page gives a quick run-down on how to install themes once you’ve downloaded them.
Magmic Games, a developer of BlackBerry games and the creators of the Bplay portal, have released a smartphone gaming survey. Anyone who completes the survey will get a free coupon for 50% off any product at Bplay. The survey has around 40 questions covering a wide range of subjects, including where and when you play games on your BlackBerry–at home, at work, on your commute, and so on–and how often you play the BlackBerry as opposed to computers, consoles, or handhelds like the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. It also asks what websites you check for news, including yours truly, and some purely demographic information like age, sex, and (optionally) income. It only takes 20 minutes or so to complete and 50% off is hard to pass up.
Apparently smartphones have topped the list of holiday gift returns according to a 2,000-person survey by Research Now, but that’s not counting the iPhone or BlackBerry. The reason for a wooping 21% return rate from smartphone buyers? Difficulty in set-up. Yep, users can determine pretty quickly if a handheld is something they want to keep or not, and being turned off due to technical issues that early on can apparently wreak huge effects on not only sales, but reputation too.
“Irreparable damage to a brand’s reputation and perception of the company itself is at stake when a product is not easy to setup and use,” [Kevin Wood, VP and Senior Technology Analyst with Opinion Research Corporation] added. “Nearly 16% of the respondents we surveyed indicated that their poor setup experience significantly worsened their perception of the company that manufactured the product.”
Given these results, can we say that BlackBerry set-up is notably easier than other smartphones? I’d be curious to see how much the numbers would change if the iPhone and BlackBerry were included.
Not that we’re biased towards covering this sort of thing, but User Centric has just finished a text messaging test which had iPhone, BlackBerry and Samsung E300 users send multiple messages from their devices. BlackBerry users had the best error rate, sitting at an average 2.1 errors per message followed closely by the number pad texter at 2.4 errors per message. The iPhone, however, suffered a wooping 5.6 errors per message. Youch. Expertise was a non-issue, as the error rate remained steady across all levels of iPhone experience. Speed between iPhone and BlackBerry typing was about on par, but that doesn’t do much to soothe the sting on the virtual keypad faithful.
A study is being launched by Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamiolton, Ontario where patients suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease will record and transmit their daily symptoms via BlackBerry. The handhelds will not only allow patients to communicate with health care professionals straight from home, but it should also allow for earlier intervention when situations worsen. The data gathered from the study could also help in determine trends in the disease.
“We also are hoping to pinpoint with more precision the high-risk peak periods of the year,” he said. Johnston said there are signs that the period between Christmas and New Year’s is a particularly risky period for COPD patients. Festive and family events, stress and different eating patterns may all have an impact on the severity of symptoms, he said but little is currently known about the causes of the Christmas epidemics of COPD.”
While the BlackBerry might still need some work against the iPhone, it’s still kicking tail against other smartphone manufacturers when it comes to keeping enterprise buyers happy. J.D. Power and Associates used a rating system which examined a smartphone’s ease of use, operating system, form factor, audio, battery and utilities, in order of weight. Palm and Samsung tied for second place, with Motorola behind the industry average. Outside of that, the survey also touched on some other trends among smartphone users, such as the 40% who wants GPS versus the mere 26% who want Wi-Fi. The top features folks are looking for in a smartphone are “personal information manager (PIM) functionality (50%), Internet capability (48%), Bluetooth capabilities (46%), general ease of use (44%) and overall design/style (44%).” Funniest thing is that games topped enterprise users’ choice for third-party software – all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, huh?
Europe is moving ahead with plans to get mobile phone usage on planes while in flight, but according to a recent survey from TripAdvisor, a wooping 78% said they don’t want to be seated next to someone using a cellphone. It’s not too surprising, considering flying tends to be close quarters for extended amounts of time, but how do BlackBerrys fit into the whole equation? First off, are data transmissions being taken into account in addition to voice when testing the new cellular technology in Europe? If not, that could put an end to BlackBerrys on planes pretty quickly. Would fliers be as by bothered by someone discreetly thumbing out e-mails as someone yakking away in their ear? Probably not. We’ll see what the airlines do, and with any luck, we’ll get to thumb to our hearts’ content the next time we cross the pond.
We just took a look at a recent survey from ChangeWave, which puts customers highly satisfied with the iPhone at a whooping 82%. RIM sits at 51% of very satisfied customers, with Sanyo and LG following close behind at 46% and 41% respectively. 16% of those surveyed who didn’t already have one, said they were planning to by an iPhone, which is the highest projected purchase rate out of all the manufacturers listed. It’s nice to say that RIM’s second only to Apple, but let’s face it, that’s a pretty big 31% gap that BlackBerry has to fill. What would it take for you guys to tick off the “Very Satisfied” box on a survey about your BlackBerry?
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