Welcome Blackberry Storm - we've been waiting. It's no secret I think the Apple iPhone is mostly iCandy and benefits more from Apple "cool" rather than real substance as a fully useful SmartPhone. It's an iPod with a bad phone, a bad phone network, and poorly thought out email app slapped on it. I call it the iPlod (and sometimes the iNewton.) And it has Apple designing it, which means users get nice iCandy but fundamentals are lacking or are poorly implemented. But, that said, Apple as usual has ushered in some valuable advancements, showing the rest of the industry where innovation was lacking. Touchscreen is the biggest addition the iPlod, er I mean, the iPhone brought to us.
So what does the Blackberry Storm have going for it that will help it dethrone the iPhone as the cool new must-have SmartPhone device? It's important to look at what Blackberry Storm got right, right out of the chute.
1. First, be a great phone and email device. That's what SmartPhones are supposed to do. The two fundamental killer apps for any SmartPhone are first being a great phone and second being a great email device. Blackberry has an excellent track record of succeeding at both. I'll use my Blackberry World Edition 8830 as an example. Phone quality is top rate. It's simply an excellent phone, whether you are talking phone quality or the software user interface of the Blackberry. I never have complaints about call quality and don't suffer many dropped calls. Even the speakerphone is first rate, the best I've used on a cell phone. The voice dialing is also the best I've used, and one of the few that works well enough I've continued to use it. And for email, well... that's where Blackberry's root are. Internet mail sync or Outlook sync is extremely easy and reliable. Only Windows Mobile 6 is likely easier when it comes to email sync and integration. It's a given the Storm will do email sync just as well. Where Blackberry email has lacked is in html support for email.
2. Expandability. Just like other Blackberry units, the Blackberry Storm has user expandable storage and a serviceable battery. The Storm starts with 1GM of built in memory and has an miniSD slot to expand memory up to 16GB (and likely will have 32MB miniSDHD support too). No iPod or iPhone replacement issues here. Just spend a few bucks to double or triple your Storm memory card instead of replacing the entire device. Then toss the old miniSD card in your camera bag or use it in some other electronic doodad. The battery is the same way. Open the compartment, pop the old one out and pop the new one in. I'm guessing the Storm will have an extended battery option just like my World Edition did. And I'll very surprised if the Storm suffers from the same battery draining woes the iPhone 3G does. I can go two days on my World Edition without a charge.
3. Improving on Innovation. Blackberry Storm takes the gorgeous look and usability of the touch screen interface and improves it by adding the "click" tactile response to the interface. Storm's screen is a larger 480x360 (12% bigger) and also has two keyboard layouts (QWERTY and SureType) and improves the camera with 3.2 megapixels and ability record video, zoom, autofocus and flash. Oh, and the Storm remembered to include cut-and-paste and email/mms sending of pictures. Funny how Apple, the people who introduced cut-and-paste to the world, forgot that one on the iNewton, er I mean iPhone.
4. No boat anchors. No iTunes. No upgrade bricks. Need I say more? Look up bloatware or boat anchor in the dictionary and you'll find iTunes listed there.
5. No Apple socialism. Blackberry's might be known as "crackberry's" but they don't come with the arrogance and snobbery of Apple's black box, we know better attitude toward customers and product design. My Blackberry just works, and works well. No attitude and fan boys who bash anyone who speaks up against the Cult of Jobs. (Though, I've noticed I get a lot less hate mail and slasher comments from Apple fanboys these days. Have they really given up that easily? Disappointing.) It's refreshing to use a product like the Blackberry that does what it's supposed to do, does it well, and doesn't come with a user community who says "you're an idiot" if you step out of line and think for yourself.
I have every reason to believe the Storm will live up to its Blackberry history of great products. How refreshing.
Like this? Here are some of Mitchell's recent posts.
- Blackberry Storm Begins Raining On iPhone Parade
- Windows XP Just Won't Die
- Microsoft Cozies Up To Open Source
- Office Cloud Breaks Through Headwind
- Podcast: Identity Management & Cloud Services
- New SaaS Platform Embraces ISVs
- Financial Crisis & Transparency Good For Network Security
Check out Mitchell's companion Converging On Microsoft Podcast. And Follow Mitchell on
.
Mitchell's Product Reviews:Mitchell's Book Recommendations:
Also visit Mitchell's other blogs and podcasts:
Visit Microsoft Subnet for more news, blogs, opinion from around the Web. Sign up for the bi-weekly Microsoft newsletter. (Click on News/Microsoft News Alert.)
Mitchell Ashley is principal consultant at Converging Network LLC where he provides product, technology and social media consulting to emerging technology companies. A successful CTO and product innovator, Mitchell has created many successful, award winning products in the networking, security, convergence, Internet and IT industries. In addition to blogging for NetworkWorld, Mitchell regularly blogs at TheConvergingNetwork and co-hosts the widely popular StillSecure After All These Years podcast.
Subscribe to Mitchell Ashley's Converging on Microsoft feed
The opinions expressed in this Weblog are those of the writer and may not represent the opinions of Network World.
|
|
Blackberry vs. iPhone
Mitchell,
I found your blog quite humorous, and that's about it. You talk about "improving on innovation" when Apple was the first to successfully market a touch screen phone. But of course RIM has had a chance to sit back and catch up, so I hope they can do better than something that has been on the market for over a year.
Secondly, you mention "No Apple Socialism" and you say "It's refreshing to use a product like the Blackberry that does what it's supposed to do, does it well, and doesn't come with a user community who says "you're an idiot" if you step out of line and think for yourself." It's funny you say that since the only reason Apple is so successful is because they, dare I say, THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX.
Apple consumers are usually hated because they are free thinkers and don't go with what they are given. That's why I live by the motto, when the world gives you Windows, throw an Apple at it.
And this is coming from a Blackberry 8830 user :-)
The irony of Apple
Ambition83, I can totally respect your and other customers perspective of going against the status quo by buying Apple and other non-mega company products vs. Microsoft products. But as free thinking as Apple is when it comes to innovating and sturring up the industry (and I'm thankful they do), Apple products come at a heavy price.
The innovation of the iPhone is a perfect example: Industry game changing touch interface, gorgeous graphics on a phone, visually appealing applications, and finally a mobile web browser that doesn't look like a web page that got chopped up in the food processor like every other mobile web browser. But... and there's always a catch with Apple, you have to live with a product who's battery life won't make a full day if you want to use 3G and wireless, a poor quality phone, Apple's closed minded approach to hardware, frozen phones when upgrading because, well, just because, and of course baffling features missing like cut-and-paste.
Innovation is great, but often others come along and take that innovation, finish the product and in the long run end up the winners. The potential is here again with Blackberry and Android.
I lost my Apple zealotry a long time ago after paying the price for Apple's arrogance towards customers and towards finishing products they brought to market, over and over again. I guess I'm like an X-smoker, now the least tolerant to the destructive behavior I previously supported.
Just because Apple is an alternative to Microsoft, doesn't mean Apple is perfect, infallible or we should ignore their blunders and mistakes. We need to demand Apple fulfill the potential of the products they create, not tolerate their deficiencies just because it's not a Microsoft product.
Mitchell Ashley
Converging Network, LLC
Personal blog: http://theconvergingnetwork.com
Personal podcast: http://www.clickcaster.com/ss
First Touch Screen Phone
Hmm, didn't Palm technically have the first touch screen phone? Sure, it wasn't completely touch screen, but it had buttons and then a screen that you could use a stylist on. I suppose they got tagged as Smart Phones rather than Touch Screen. It's still the first~
No WIFI = Wait for next years model
Here is yet another new phone with tons of goodies but no WIFI. For the new Blackberry to be the ultimate iPhone killer the addition of WIFI would have been the critical blow. Of course leave it to phone makers to release a phone with almost everything you could ask for, leaving out WIFI so that you'll buy this phone today and then upgrade to the new WIFI model when it comes out in 2 years. Another economic reason for leaving this feature out is that the addition of WIFI would take you off the carriers network and onto your own network, which would mean less downloading from their network and perhaps less advertising revenue dollars. If you're on the Dollars Per MB Data Plan then WIFI also means less money for the carrier when you can download your own content from your own network. What would it take for phone manufacturers and carriers to just build a phone with all the features that people want and allow them to use the phone as they please? Eventually either an existing or new carrier will come to market with a plan that concedes that they're a utility and they'll let customers use their lines for whatever they choose: Voice, data, fax, text, music or Video. Until this happens Smartphone adoption rate won't take off to its full potential and consumers will be stuck with the mediocre user experience that carriers provide them with today.
Reasons the iPhone is better (for me anyway)
Mitchell,
Clearly you have some valid points. As a former BlackBerry 8700c user/former Treo 750 with Windows Mobile 6.0 and current iPhone user, here is where the iPhone blows the other two devices out of the water.
1) E-mail. You can actually read html formatted emails in the font and style (with images even!) in which they were originally sent, as opposed to some crappy monotype font that alters the page width. Furthermore, you can zoom in and out as needed.
2) Attachments. Opening attachments on the BlackBerry was frankly, a waste of time. They never came out right. Same for the Treo. With my iPhone, for the first time I can actually see attachments the way they were intended to be viewed. And I can zoom in and out as needed.
3) Web browsing. BlackBerry web browsing is so awful I stopped trying. The Treo was only slightly better. Safari on the iPhone with zooming capabilities and rotate to landscape is amazing! I can actually use my smart phone to access the internet now.
4) Remote Desktop Protocol. BlackBerry has 3rd party software that will let you use RDP to connect to a server or your home machine, but the fixed resolution, coupled with no mouse made it unusable to me. The Treo has built-in RDP software that was kind of OK. You could scroll around, but you couldn't see where you were going to scroll to until you took the stylus off the screen. There was no zooming in and out, so trying to find what you were looking for was hit and miss.
WinAdmin for the iPhone gives you RDP with zooming, rotate to landscape, and you can see exactly where you are scrolling to as you scroll. As a network/systems admin, this functionality is priceless. And it was only $11.99 from...
5) Apple's App Store. All available apps are in one place. If my phone has to be wiped for any reason, they have a record of my purchase and I can re-download any purchased apps. I don't have to deal with the hassle of ensuring I have a backup of all apps I have purchased.
That's just 5 things off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more.
iPhone vs. BB Storm
I am 100% in support of your article "5 Things Blackberry Storm Got Right"!
I have friends who just had to have the iPhone and since then, do absolutely nothing but complain about the phone quality etc, etc. I was almost convinced that was the way to go... however, I decided I could not leave Verizon since they have been great from a customer service perspective (at least with me) and I would wait it out to see how the iPhone is received. Best thing I did... I also have the BB8830 World Edition and I do not have any complaints... and I use it for the RIGHT things, email and phone. If I need tunes... that's what my Nano is for. Anyway, I can't wait for the Storm to make its debut... although I probably will give it a few months to work out any issues before I take the plunge. Thanks for the well thought out analysis of the BB vs iP.
I've Been Waiting
I had a broken (cracked screen) Blackberry Curve and went to AT&T and got an iphone 3G. I had it for 2 days and promptly returned it and went back to my broken Curve. The iphone is a toy. No picture messages, no cut and paste! The one thing I DID like was its touch feature. So i went out and bought an iPod Touch. I will be waiting in line for the Storm. Its got the best of both worlds.
Post new comment