When the BlackBerry first came into popularity in the early part of 2002, I remember hearing it called “CrackBerry” by its fans. The BlackBerry basically had three things going for it: you could get your email instantly, it had a big enough keyboard to reply easily, and the thumb scrolling button made it easy to flip up and down several pages of emails.

Aside from those three features, everything else about the BlackBerry was either average or even sub-par: the screen was hard to read, the phone sound quality was horrible, and it didn’t offer much in the way of additional features.

Flash-forward six years later, and not a whole lot has changed with the BlackBerry. It’s still pretty much only useful for one thing: reading email. And while that may have sufficed 6 or even 10 years ago, in today’s ever-growing smartphone market, it’s simply not enough to keep people addicted. According to recent articles, it’s clear that the market demand will continue to grow for smartphones, while declining for other types of cell phones, and that the main driver for this market growth is Apple’s iPhone.

With Apple today announcing a slew of new features for the iPhone, could this be the end for BlackBerry/RIM?

The case against BlackBerry:

• It’s the Internet, dummy. The web browser for the BlackBerry is poor at best. Most web developers are extremely frustrated with its lack of full support for JavaScript and CSS. The iPhone’s integrated Safari browser, while lacking Flash capabilities at the moment, is extremely robust, and is easily the best mobile browser on the market.
• People don’t want to carry more than they need. The iPhone’s capability to switch between Internet browsing, email and playing music is simply flawless. The BlackBerry hasn’t been able to compete with Apple in this regard.
• Apple has claimed 6 million iPhone users. In its first year of sale, the iPhone has already sold over 6 million units. By comparison, BlackBerry claims to have about 14 million units in distribution.
• Apple users are happier with their iPhone. Apple users claim a 79% satisfaction rate with their iPhone, while RIM users claim a 54% satisfaction rate.
• The new iPhone does more for less. Integrated GPS, more on-board memory, a touch-screen, compatibility with existing iPod accessories, and more, drive Apple way over the top in terms of potentially converting an existing RIM/BlackBerry user.

The case for BlackBerry:

• Most people fat-finger the iPhone keyboard. It’s easy to eventually become somewhat accustomed to it, but it’s still pretty hard to type a full blown email on the iPhone keyboard. This might be solved by offering something like a stylus for tapping out emails, or even a bluetooth keyboard add-on, but for the moment the out-of-the-box text input is better on the BlackBerry than the iPhone.
• BlackBerry/RIM is well integrated into businesses. Tight integration with Outlook, and support across most corporate environments for the BlackBerry will help to keep it afloat in the short-term, but the horizon could change quickly if Apple gains more momentum in the corporate IT space.
• Integrated Microsoft Office document editing. Some BlackBerry devices come with some capability to edit common Microsoft Office document formats. While the iPhone can view Microsoft Office and PDF docs, it’s not yet possible with the out-of-the-box iPhone. This could change quickly, as there are rumors of an Office editor coming to the iPhone.
• The iPhone is still considered a “toy” by many. While it has a good reputation overall, many people still consider the iPhone to be a “pretty-looking toy” compared to the BlackBerry. But given that everyone who owns an iPhone raves about how functional they are, especially in the arena of web browsing, it’s possible that the iPhone may overcome this image handicap quickly.

Given the case for and against the BlackBerry, I’d say that the BlackBerry’s days are numbered. RIM could change the game quickly, but they’d have to introduce something far more capable than any of their current models. RIM’s pace of innovation has been pretty flatlined for the last 6-8 years, so it seems unlikely that they’ll push the envelope much further than where it stands today.

Filed under: Mobile Web