Apples and Blackberries, Oh My
Since Apple entered the mobile phone market with its Iphone, I can’t tell you the number of phone calls I’ve gotten from our starstruck sales reps that have been dying to have one of these things as their “company phone.” The conversation always goes the same, with me having to crush their excitement by saying “Nope, the Iphone will NOT work with our Blackberry server or with any other business’ push e-mail system.” The Iphone has always been a consumer oriented device–that is until tomorrow. Apple is expected to announce that it is opening up its platform to Microsoft Exchange and also releasing a software development kit for developers to create applications and then sell them through Itunes. If you’re interested in reading more, here is a link to an article.
So with Apple turning business friendly, this theoretically impacts RIM’s seeming stranglehold on the business mobile device market. The question becomes will businesses be able to look at the Iphone as a business device or continue to see it as a consumer luxury. I think the Iphone is a beautiful product personally but I’m having trouble envisioning myself using it in place of my Blackberry. The retail cost difference between the two devices is not that different in the grand scheme of things, with the Iphone being even a little cheaper than a brand new Blackberry. On the other hand though, you can get a Blackberry from any of the major cell providers but the Iphone is still exclusive to AT&T (which is horrible in my area). If this unlocking of Apple’s platform is all a go as rumored, it will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out and how much RIM is impacted. Anyone want to volunteer themselves or their company to be the first to jump on the bleeding edge of the “new” Iphone?
2 Responses to “Apples and Blackberries, Oh My”
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It’s always interesting to see how well Apple does with consumers, yet poorly with business. It’s been that way for years. Do you think this will be different? Maybe.
On another note a colleague had a new Air Mac…or is it Mac Air?…at a meeting the other day. His was the $3,200 with the solid state hard drive. Very slick. Almost no startup time. Bright clear screen. Now if I could just use one for work…
Supposedly Lenovo is coming out with a similar size machine, so it will continue to be interesting.
For the money I still think Blackberry is better. I have used Blackberry, Motorola, Palm, and UT Starcomm smartphones and I feel that Blackberry was consistently the best phone for email and messaging. Also, as you mentioned, the Iphone is only available through At&t. I would think twice before switching to their service just for the Iphone.