Apple, Palm seen cutting into BlackBerry sales
Growing competition from new smartphones carved into Research in Motion's (RIMM) June sales, according to a report to clients issued Wednesday by Piper Jaffray's T. Michael Walkley.
RIM's BlackBerry still has a huge market share — nearly 20% of the worldwide smartphone market, second only to Nokia (NOK), according to Gartner — but Walkley's retail checks found some erosion in BlackBerry position last month.
The problem, according to Walkley, is that carriers like Verizon (VZ), Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (DT) have been soft-peddling the BlackBerries and promoting new devices from Apple (AAPL) and Palm (PALM).
In particular, Walkley's checks found that:
- BlackBerry Curve sales declined slightly at Sprint due to "solid sales" of the Palm Pre.
- Apple's new iPhone 3GS and the $99 price point for the old iPhone 3G "impacted" BlackBerry sales at AT&T (T), with June's numbers coming in below May's.
- Verizon ended its buy-one-get-one-free offer for BlackBerries last weekend and Walkley's checks indicate slightly slower BlackBerry sales and more action in the LG department, where Verizon started a similar promotion for their devices.
Walkley doesn't see consumer interest in the iPhone or Palm Pre going away any time soon, and he sees more competition coming down the road. In August, T-Mobile is scheduled to roll out the G2 — the latest phone based on Google's (GOOG) Android platform — and there are more smartphones due in the second half of '09 from LG, Nokia, Motorola (MOT) and Samsung.
The one bright spot in RIM's near future, says Walkley, is the launch of the BlackBerry Tour, due out later this month. He thinks it will do quite well.
"In fact," he writes, "we expect the Tour will sell very well to Verizon's installed BlackBerry subscriber base, as this is Verizon's first product that is competitive with the Bold at AT&T. Sales of the Tour are key in our opinion, as our checks indicated RIM may need strong July and August sales to meet its guidance."
If so, RIM cannot be pleased with the early review of the Tour that appeared Wednesday morning in Silicon Alley Insider.
"It's a solid gadget that any plastic-keyboard-addicted BlackBerry devotee should consider upgrading to. The screen and browser are especially nice compared to older BlackBerry models like the Curve," writes SAI's Dan Frommer. "But after a year on the iPhone, setting up a new BlackBerry was like figuring out a puzzle. It shouldn't have to be.
"Setting up email, for instance, was a 20-minute pain — versus a 2-minute breeze on the iPhone. If I weren't a relentless nerd, I would have had to contact customer service to figure it out, wasting Verizon's time and money."
It gets worse. To read Frommer's full review, click here.
“Setting up email, for instance, was a 20-minute pain — versus a 2-minute breeze on the iPhone"……I think this guy was drunk when he was trying to do that.
20 mins to setup email? There is no way. The only thing required is to type in your email address and password.
Dan is far from a technical reviewer and is one of the biggest Apple fan boys out there so this "review" is a bit skeptical.
RIM will be fine and the Tour will sell like crazy on Verizon AND Sprint as they both have not had a new standard Blackberry since the Curve 8330's .. add the updated Storm this fall and at&t's next device and while they may have a slowdown things will ramp right back up while iPhone sales drop just like they have done after the launch hype.
RIM has more carriers and a wider range of price points combined with the best in class enterprise backend that no one has equaled.
I have to agree that iPhone can be a nice toy, however it doesn't get thrown away after a week. It's probably the best mobile browser. The Map application is much faster for location and easier to use than what BlackBerry offer, but again, no one beats the BB email efficiency. I carry both devices (BB for email and iPhone for Web, music and games).
To James, if you configure 7 email accounts on your iPhone good luck with the battery usage; this means 7 different unoptimized connections vs. a single optimized connection on BB. that's why my phone bill when roaming overseas is $1000 on average per week for iPhone if data roaming is enabled vs. $100 for BB.
unfortunately will have to continue carrying both for a while until one device can meet my heavy needs.
What goes around comes around 
The problem, according to Walkley, is that carriers like Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have been soft-peddling the BlackBerries and promoting new devices from Apple and Palm.
I don't know how you got your hands on the BlackBerry Tour but the Tour is not even out. I would agree iPhone is a toy that a kid would use for a week and toy around with and get tired of it. In terms of daily use, there is no other smartphone that comes even close to the BlackBerry that increases productivity and organization.
It took me 0.00 seconds to set up my MobileMe email account because my Apple account already has all my information, don't know why this anonymous guy needs 20 to 30 seconds to set up his blackberry email account. When I include my hotmail, gmail and 5 other email accounts into my iPhone all I did was type in my email address and iPhone did everything else automatically. I spent a grand total of 30 seconds to include all my 7 email accounts into my iPhone and I haven't had any problem since. I got autosync email and messages on all my accounts through MobileMe which also auto-translates my email and messages from Chinese to English and vice versa. My MobileMe even autosync all my calendars and contacts, manages my appointments with attachments and notifies my associates without skipping a beat. The GPS even guides me turn by turn to my meetings including bus and plane schedules, bus terminal and airplane terminal, meeting room location and attachments. I also do net meetings with my camera and speaker, remote access to meeting equipments, VPN, remote desktop etc. I am hooking up my iPhone with my company's SAP Enterprise Portal accessing all my SAP workitems using the UWL as well as logging into the SAP ECC 6.0 instances to execute SAP transactions and programs through SAP WebDynpro or BSP or even native SAP ABAP. There is nothing more powerful than iPhone in this planet. People are just as powerful as what they know, or fail to know.
The iPhone is a great seller because it is a toy and it provides lots of applications to play with….. you just have to ignore it's actual cell phone quality and pricey AT&T minimum monthly rates. The problem for RIM is that folks are comparing a solid device like the Blackberry 8900 to an iPhone pop culture game toy…and that isn't going to chanve. RIM now has to figure-out how to deal with a consumer market the views their products in the same category as music players.
I have a BlackBerry for work and I just acquired the 99 dollar iPhone for personal use. There is no comparison–the iPhone blows the BlackBerry away on all levels. iPhone will continue to eat into RIM's profits as time goes on and people catch on to what a great phone/computer it is overall. I honestly don't know how I lived withouth the iPhone until now.
"If takes 20 minutes for configuring email on blackberry
and takes 2 minutes for configuring email on iPhone;
then iPhone is 10 times smarter on email than blackberry.
Posted By James, Toronto, Ontario : July 8, 2009 3:44 pm "
you been smoking too much dope bro; configuring email on blackberry entails writing down email address and password (anywhere from 20 seconds to 30 seconds depending how long your password is No other phone on the market even comes close to BB's email capability (push mail) and setup
The change is near. Smartphones are about to burst into the mainstream and past the gadget lovers and other early adopters. As they become an everyday tool for the masses, there is little doubt that the coolest and easiest to use devices will begin to steal significant share. For now, that is definitely iPhone and then the Palm Pre. With the huge potential for smart phone growth, there is room for 3 to 5 winners and not just one or two as some suggest. Still, as the dynamics change in the mass market Apple is best positioned to leverage the opportunity by being the leading choice as "every person's smartphone".
If takes 20 minutes for configuring email on blackberry
and takes 2 minutes for configuring email on iPhone;
then iPhone is 10 times smarter on email than blackberry.
RIM already knows they're facing problems. They predicted after their recent quarter results, if I'm not mistaken, lower sales forecast forthcoming. And look at the forecast for Nokia vis a vis Apple's increasing presence.
It has already come to a point where customers are comparing the coming new blackberries to the LGs, Samsungs and Motorolas; and in many ways the Lgs, Samsungs and Motorolas, Nokias come out way better than what Rim can offer. Let alone the vaunted iPhone and Pres. For example, I like the Nokia E71 a lot better than the blackberry Tour, and Sony has a phone with a 12 megapixel zoom camera…….you catch my drifts?
Those of you who consider the iPhone a TOY is only demonstrating that you do not know anything about the OS/platform. The iPhone's platform is amazing. Before you stick your foot in your mouth, I recommend educating yourself completely about the iPhone OS..there is no phone that can do what the iPhone platform can do… do your research. 3G and 3GS