Tough Competitors : Apple’s iPhone And BlackBerry’s Smart Phones.

Posted on April 3, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized

Apple Inc.’s introduction of the iPhone in June brought attention to smart phones, and more people are starting to use them, including Nokia and Blackberry. People are starting to realize, ‘Why should I buy a Razr when I can buy a BlackBerry or an iPhone?’

Motorola company never came up with another hit like the Razr. For the most part, the phones didn’t catch on in the face of tough competition from foreign makers such as Nokia and Samsung.

The company will create two communications companies in a tax-free transaction in 2009: Mobile Devices, its handset operation, and Broadband & Mobility Solutions, a catch-all entity containing its government and public safety units, telecom gear, and cable set-top receivers.

Users of Apple’s iPhone are using the device to do everything but talk on the phone, according to a new study, transforming the product into a mobile entertainment platform rather than just a cellular phone.

Owners of competing products - such as Nokia’s N92 or Research in Motion’s Blackberry - use their phones for voice communications 71.7 percent of the time the company discovered, while iPhone owners spend just 46.5 percent of their time with the product engaged in voice calls.

U.S. consumers said they spent 12.1 percent of their iPhone usage time accessing the Internet, a stark contrast with 2.4 percent for all mobile phones on average.

Furthermore, iPhone owners spent 11.9 percent of their usage time listening to music or other audio, compared to just 2.5 percent for all mobile handset users.

Google and Bank of America recently commented on how the rapid rise of traffic from iPhone owners is forcing them to modify their support of mobile Internet activities.

But iPhone Popularity Spurs Blackberry Sales. It added 2.2 million new subscribers during the quarter, bringing its total to more than 14 million, and it shipped about 4.4 million smart phones.

Apple has said it sold 2.3 million iPhones in the quarter that ended Dec. 29, for a total of about 4 million in the six months since the device’s launch.

BlackBerry’s smart phones are cheaper than iPhones, and many people consider them easier to use for e-mail and text-messaging because they have traditional keypads instead of touchscreens.