So, okay, fair enough. We’ve beaten the BlackBerry horse so far past death even it’s ghost shows bruises. But here’s the thing — the second biggest story of the week (after iPhone OS 2.2, naturally) is the release of the Blackberry Storm, a direct response to Apple’s revolutionary iPhone and its unprecedented sales, business, and reliability success.
How could we ignore that, and how could we ignore iPhone owners who are daring to think different(ly) about jumping to the Storm, or have stuck with Verizon this long hoping the Storm would give them reason not to switch to the iPhone AT&T.
The answer is, we can’t, and we won’t. So after the break, our Top 5 reasons why the BlackBerry Storm STILL doesn’t compare to the iPhone!
The Storm still lacks Javascript chops (attn: RIM, see SquirelFish, Tracemonkey, V8, etc.!) so turns it off by default. The iPhone OS 2.1 browser is a tad crash prone. Fair fight? Well, let’s not forget the Berry’s is likely still itching to brawl over the most recent sales, satisfaction, and reliability figures, b’okay? But it’s the fastest fight Kevin had time for… for now.
The results?
iPhone did better when the Storm had Javascript on, but took a beating and crashed and burned twice when the Storm defaulted to Javascript off (and the iPhone still had it on).
How much of a role was played by the difference in network speed between Verizon’s EVDO rev A and AT&T’s HSDPA we don’t know, and since the Storm completely lacks WiFi, a pure browser test may forever elude us. (Early bird Walt Mossberg claims he got different results in different locations where each network had stronger or weaker signals, of course, but that the iPhone on WiFi was consistently the fastest — we’d add to that WiFi enables all sorts of additional networking features as well, like file exchange and remote control).
In either case, judging by how fast the blogerati have jumped on the Storm wagon, and how often the iPhone is coming up in the coverage, that this rivalry has only just begun!
The iPhone is twice as reliable as the Blackberry after one year of ownership, a new study by SquareTrade finds.
Wow. I was a Treo user for years (WinMo and Palm OS) so I know the issues these devices can have in terms of reliability– first hand. Having used the iPhone since its launch in 2007, I can confidently say I agree with this study. I have not used a BlackBerry for an extended period of time, so I don’t have first hand experience with what can happen to one, however, I have discussed this topic with the support team at my place of employment and they concur that even the fabled BlackBerry runs into issues over time.
This is big news for users that are looking for a reliable device that don’t have the patience for the potential troubles other devices can have in the Enterprise (well, even non-Enterprise environment for that matter). The study is broken into a few different subgroups including:
Malfunction rate after 12 months
Malfunction rates since purchase
Probability of problems based on type (battery, call quality, etc)
Distribution of malfunction per 100 incidents
This heralds greatly for the iPhone which had the lowest incidents in all categories except the touchpad/screen/keypad category. This includes: Includes burn-in, screen spots, dead pixels, and touch screen dead spots. This is higher for the iPhone due to the reported problems from first-generation iPhones. I have personally not encountered any of the issues listed here, but hey, maybe I am lucky. The study does mention that the iPhone 3G does not appear to have any of these problems like the first generation did.
All in all, this is excellent news for the iPhone and Apple, congratulations! Read the full report after the jump!
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Last week both CrackBerry.com and WMExperts found themselves on the cusp of major releases — the BlackBerry Storm, BlackBerry Bold on AT&T, the HTC Fuze on AT&T, not to mention a few others on the Windows Mobile side. So while everybody has been anticipating new devices, all of the editors at SPE are anticipating something else that will be starting on November 17th. The hint is right up there in the picture!
Read on for the full skinny on what’s been happening around SPE!
What’s the big news in the Smartphone world this week? It’s a mix, really. Android’s looking like a viable platform to more and more people, there are a ton of Windows Mobile devices on the way, and both CrackBerry.com and the iPhone Blog are running contests that ought to spark your interest. Read on!
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You may not realize it, but the site you’re reading right now is a part of one of the premier networks of smartphone news and review sites. We call it the ‘Smartphone Experts Network’ and if you haven’t heard, we’ve recently added a new member to our family, Android Central. That brings the number of our smartphone communities up to five sites. You can find links to these sites and to their latest stories either in the sidebar or footer of every SPE site.
I thought now would be a good time to introduce a new weekly blog post I’ll be putting up at each of our sites called ‘Around SPE,’ which will give you a very quick roundup of the biggest stories at each of our sites. Now, ‘big stories’ are just a tiny part of what we offer, as each of our sites also feature vibrant communities, engaging podcasts, and also accessory stores if you’re looking to make your smartphone a little better.
In addition to our new sister site, there’s also some other SPE Network news to share, so follow me after the break to learn more!
Way back on March 14 we covered some of the bold, bodacious pontifications the CEOh-no’s of Microsoft, RIM, and Palm had made about the iPhone. Quick-on-the-buzzer as always, it’s time once again to go back to our judges and see how they did!
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
“Talk — all I’m [hearing] is talk about [the iPhone's chances in Enterprise]. I think it’s important that we put this thing in perspective.” [...] “Apple’s design-centric approach [will] ultimately limit its appeal by sacrificing needed enterprise functionality. I think over-focus on one blinds you to the value of the other.” [...] “Apple’s approach produced devices that inevitably sacrificed advanced features for aesthetics.”
THERE’S a reason that R.I.M. is averse to the iPhone’s glass pad. “I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it,” says Mike Lazaridis, R.I.M.’s co-chief executive and technological visionary. “It’s hard to type on a piece of glass.”
Judges?
10 Million iPhones sold in 2008, almost 7 million in Q4 alone. More units of a single SKU moved than all RIM SKUs combined, and more than (we think!) WinMob licenses as well. 200,000,000 App Store downloads, 5500 Apps available, and now being copied by Microsoft, Google, and RIM. Form factor and touch-centricity copied by both Microsoft-OEMs and RIM (who’s also introducing a no-keyboard Blackberry Storm!). And Palm? Er… Anyone heard from Palm lately?
[Here's a bonus TiPb of the Iceberg for you this week, courtesy of the humongous news coming out of Apple's Quarterly Conference Call]
Tuesday’s news that the iPhone has been selling well stupendously well, in case you weren’t paying attention, was really big. It’s tough to express how big. Some of the bullet points:
They exceeded their sales goal of 10 million iPhones in 2008 already, with the holiday season still ahead of them
They sold nearly 7 million iPhones in three months.
They sold more iPhones than RIM sold BlackBerrys (yes, that’s the proper plural spelling)
Based on revenue from iPhones, Apple was the #3 cellphone maker last quarter, behind only Nokia and Samsung.
They achieved all this in 15 months.
Now, there are caveats to these numbers: there was pent-up demand for the iPhone 3G so these numbers almost surely won’t hold; RIM’s sales were depressed because of delays releasing the BlackBerry Bold. Don’t let these caveats mislead you, though, what Apple did with the iPhone 3G in the past three months is unprecedented in the mobile industry, it was pretty much unprecedented in any industry.
US tax dollars at work dept.: TUAW is reporting (via TheHill.com) that the Chief Administrative Office of the U.S Congress is testing iPhones due to “people requesting them as an option”:
Adoption of the iPhone by the U.S. Congress could be another blow to RIM, which is now behind Apple in terms of sales and revenues. Apple CEO Steve Jobs gleefully reported that “Apple beat RIM” during yesterday’s Q4 Earnings Call.
No, it’s not Deja Vu. No one has reset the Matrix (we think…) It’s just another Apple follow-along. To paraphrase Bertrand Serlet: Waterloo, start your photocopiers!
Not content with merely iCloning the iPhone look with the Bold or touchscreen with the Storm, during the Blackberry Developer Conference today, RIM basically repeated Apple’s iPhone SDK Roadmap Event announcements from back in March, note for note.
