It’s clearly summer in some parts of the world, since news has been particularly slow the past few days. In other words, I have to scrounge up something to talk about, so let’s talk about another apparent victim of Apple’s and Google’s success in the mobile space. RIM launched its Torch mobile phone to much fanfare not too long ago, but early reviews were negative, and now sales aren’t really stellar either. What more can RIM do?
It’s hard for me to write about Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, since up until quite recently, it wasn’t a particularly popular platform here. I’m seeing more and more of them recently, but still haven’t used one, sadly.
In any case, RIM’s been seeing some decline in its market share, mostly due to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. The BlackBerry OS was seen as outdated and from a bygone era, and the recent revamp of the operating system, version 6.0, accompanied by new hardware, the Torch, was supposed to turn the tide.
Well, things aren’t going so well, it seems. The Wall Street Journal talked to two analyst firms, and both of them estimate the sales figures for RIM’s new flagship device at only 150000 units sold in the first three days – compared to the iPhone 4’s 1.7 million. The BlackBerry is still far more popular than the iPhone in the US, so you’d think the Torch would sell a lot better than these mere 150000 units. Sure, the HTC EVO 4G also did 150000 units, but hey, HTC’s market share and brand recognition are miles below those of RIM.
Further illustrating things aren’t going well is the fact that the price of the Torch has already been cut in half, from $199.99 with a two year contract to just $99.99. Gizmodo argues that the only one to blame is RIM itself, which set insane expectations for the Torch – iPhone-like sales figures included.
I’d say RIM faces two big challenges – both of which are not easy to overcome. First, the BlackBerry OS is outdated, despite the 6.0 revamp. RIM’s acquisition of QNX Software Systems might play a role in this one; could they be working on a brand new operating system based on QNX?
The second problem is probably a lot harder to overcome: brand image. I’d say the BlackBerry is seen a boring device for boring men wearing boring suits driving boring cars. Company-issued, that sort of thing. RIM clearly wants to appeal to the average customer as well, but the Torch, a device that is at least two generations behind everyone else, surely isn’t going to draw anyone away from the latest Android phones and the iPhone 4.
Last time I googled about this, it seems QNX is just for car stuff – RIM wants to integrate nicely with car IVI systems using QNX.
Of course that’s not the best reason to buy an operating system, esp. if there are free ones to go around, but…
“I’d say the BlackBerry is seen a boring device for boring men wearing boring suits driving boring cars”
Just that you know Thom, most of the elit-ish clubbers here in Zurich use Blackberrys.
Why? because BBs PIN-to-PIN messaging is very popular around here. And for that we need a blackberry, because we want to get an invitation to their next boat ride on a boat their daddies bought them. It’s so easy
But still, I completely agree with your statement.
Actually, at the company where I work, I see many young girls (well, early 20s) using a BlackBerry, probably because it just is that very responsive for texting. I do agree it hasn’t got the sexy appeal of an HTC or iPhone, but sometimes usefulness wins from sex appeal, appearently.
I think it is more a case of network effects. RIM’s messaging system is closed and a perfect form of lock in. Once a group of blackberry users reaches critical mass in a location, more people will feel obligated to jump on the closed platform (if they are not being actively pushed to do so). It’s the same with other messaging networks.
You use the service where most of your friends can be found. If that means using a certain brand of phone, it will be because of the number of friends on the messaging system, not because of the further usefullness of the phone in other area’s.
I’m in that situation, where the outside pressure to go with Blackberry is unusually high. I am resisting strongly though, because Blackberries are boring, yesterday’s smartphones. That and I react negatively to demands placed on me, because it is what every other lemming is doing. Especially, when the reason given is a spurious one. Like, PIN texting is free of charge. Is it? As far as I can see you have to pay additional fees in The Netherlands to get access to the Blackberry network in comparison to an ordinairy data contract.
I agree with the perception of the blackberry of the boring business oriented user….but I would think that the image of the touch screen models could be uniquely “cooler”.
But, I am totally impressed with the recent ads (in Canada) that tell guys like me about the messaging advantages and so on……who knew? Android is an iphone “me-too” with more players behind it….maybe they eventually won’t need Apple to innovate / compete with….but they probably do at this point.
RIM at least is pointing out that they have had features all along that the competition can’t match (yet)…..even the negative publicity has helped get the word out (again, this is to my ears anyways) about the message encryption and stuff. A good way to compete and make current users feel good about using the product. Palm should have tried that when the Iphone came out!
BlackBerrys have a superpower that I think is really under-appreciated. I myself wasn’t aware of it until I recently witnessed a girl using a BlackBerry after a plane had landed, and was astounded at the speed and responsiveness of the OS and suitedness for rapid-fire messaging. This girl literally was able to turn it on, bang out and send five medium-length e-mails and/or SMSes (not sure which) within the span of about two minutes. As soon as she pressed the Send button it was on to starting the next message, zero pause in between. On my phone that sort of thing would have taken 5-7 minutes, most of which would have been spent waiting while the phone “thinks”. So in this sense, I hope the new BlackBerry stays as “unsophisticated” as the previous generation.
On the other hand, BlackBerrys also have a secret weakness, namely that e-mail support is dependent on the carrier to provide a special forwarding service. It’s just ridiculous that in this day and age they still don’t have a native POP/IMAP client on the phone. So you can’t just buy an unlocked BlackBerry, pop a SIM card in there, and get your e-mail (AFAIK not even over Wi-Fi). This is of course how BlackBerry makes extra money on the side, by licensing their server platform to the carriers. But it sucks for consumers, especially in Europe where it’s common to buy unlocked phones and switch between carriers. This is the primary issue that prevents me from considering the Torch or recommending it to others, even though it looks very nice overall. If BlackBerry is to keep pace with the competition in the consumer market, their proprietary e-mail model has to change.
Edited 2010-08-17 22:46 UTC
I guess you’ve never used a Storm then. Thats the slowest piece of crap phone I’ve ever used. It literally takes about 15 seconds before it unlocks the screen, and about the same to rotate the stupid thing into landscape mode. Its really a tragic phone, which may explain the Torch. RIM doesn’t understand touch phones, they don’t seem to want to get that shoehorning their quite clunky OS into a touch device WON’T WORK! They may have great email integration, they have really fast messaging and on a device with a keyboard they pretty much run the show, the OS is adequate for this type of device, but falls utterly flat on its face with a touch based screen, because the OS is clearly not designed for it.
I would have mostly agreed with you until I updated to OS 5 on the original Storm. At that point it became the best phone I had ever used to date. It was quick, slick and fun to use until I tried to access web pages of course but that wasn’t why I bought the Blackberry. It’s because I wanted a reliable **phone**. The other smart phones I had used to that point (Windows based) were terrible phones and the iPhone and Android phones didn’t exist yet. I could often press the EndCall button on my Windows phone and the call would continue on without me realizing it. Now my only complaints against the Storm are still the built-in Web browser but I have switched to Bolt to remedy that problem and the lack of memory – only 128 MB. With all the useful apps – and I stress the word useful – I have been maxing out the memory and the phone does act up at that point on occasion. And I have also come to love the SurePress. There is something very satisfying in knowing that the key won’t be accepted until there is actually a “click” – just like my computer keyboard.
I now have a Nexus One that I have been trying out for the last couple of weeks. It’s a beautiful piece of engineering and there is a lot to like about it but it’s still not my Storm. I miss the SurePress when I’m typing a message, email sync is certainly not as fast as the Blackberry, the messaging integration with Twitter and Facebook are definitely not as stream-lined, the auto-dimming is certainly not as “smart” as the Storm and keeps the display too dim overall so I am constantly adjusting it manually, the outdoor readability of the Storm is better, the extra physical buttons I use for app shortcuts are missing from the Nexus, the battery life is shorter on the Nexus, the SECURITY is better on the Storm, and of course its **phone** quality is just not quite as good as my Storm. But I do LOVE the web browser on it, the RSS reader I installed, and the slickness of the interface itself. There are certainly tonnes more application in the App store but I really haven’t found that many more useful ones that actually enhance my **phone** experience other than the voice rec, and search functionality. But I also don’t completely trust the data on my phone. This is probably the prime reason it won’t become my favoured phone. I don’t trust that the information I have on it will remain within my control. Google has ulterior motives and I’m not sure I can completely trust a corporate entity that is interested in selling information – especially mine.
Will I get the Torch when it comes to Canada? Well maybe not right away. I am going to wait and see what else Blackberry might have up it’s sleeve. I definitely don’t want to be burned again with low operating memory but if something did happen to my Storm I would definitely buy it as a replacement. Or if I get too frustrated with the lack of memory on my current Storm when I just want to try that new fancy theme ;-).
Just my opinion…
Doing the mobile version of a website at the moment, and sadly this meant using a BlackBerry for testing.
Can sum it up in two words; “They suck”. They’re boring, old and clunky. Going back to the iPhone or Android after using one is like a breath of fresh air.
I’d say that RIM are the new Palm. They’ll eventually get the message once their sales decline enough. Then they’ll desperately try to get an updated OS out the door.
But it will be too little too late. They’re stuffed.
Hammer -> Nail (on head)
On thing I think the BlackBerry (got a work-issues 8900) is superb in, is using it outdoors. Even in full sunshine, me wearing sunglasses, it is perfectly bright and readable. As we say in Dutch, kom daar maar eens om met een iPhone.
I think the design is just bad. If it was the boring image why would they sell a lot of phones in the past, because Blackberry’s always have been like that.
I just don’t like the sliding mechanism. I want a phone in one piece, which gives it a more robust feel and makes it less heavy and thick so it can survive a drop from let’s say 2 meters high. The sliding mechanism just makes it look fragile and old fashion. I don’t want moving parts, all they can do is break down at a certain point.
What I love about most blackberry’s is the keyboard. I hate touchscreen only phones so I currently own a Bold 9000 myself and it’s a great phone except for the crappy web browser so if OS 6 fixes that I might go for a new bold but no way I would ever buy a Torch.
1) The Torch has NOT been dropped to $99, that was misinformation and Gizmodo has completely retracted their post; see http://gizmodo.com/5614455/blackberry-torch-now-available-at-half-p… — Amazon always had an introductory price for it of $99, while the retail price remains $199 on contract.
2) Your glib waving-off of comparable numbers from HTC’s absolute hottest phone, the Evo, smacks of poor judgment. Why are sales of 150,000 phones good for HTC, but bad for RIM? HTC is riding on the enthusiasm of Android right now, and had a great opening weekend and then a big dropoff in sales due to reports of dismal battery life. RIM’s Torch will very likely have the opposite sales curve, due to enterprise sales. But you don’t know anything about Blackberries, so why would you know that.
3) You admit you know nothing about Blackberries and have never used one. Why are you writing a post about them?
RIM did their homework on this device, targeted to a specific demographic. Torch is not a high-end phone, granted — I do think they will quickly drop the price because its specs do not stack up against iPhone 4, or the high-end Androids. But that is by design. It’s a mid-range phone.
Very tired of your poor analysis of topics/items you know nothing about.
Edited 2010-08-18 16:23 UTC
And $200->$100 *isn’t* cutting its price in half. The phone actually costs around $500, so it is a 20% cut.
Ha, a BlackBerry user. Hi.
hehe hello. 😉 Apologies for my angry post.
I am actually an Android fan, but longtime blackberry support guy at my office. Blackberries are beloved by my coworkers. Five out of five chose new Blackberries just last month instead of switching to Android.
Android is great for consumers; so I have no idea how RIM plans on really doing consumer Blackberry phones well. The Torch is definitely a generation behind the best smartphones out there.
I would argue the kind of people who buy the new BB differ from those that get the iPhone. That in turn affects how/when they buy a new phone.
I have a BB900, sturdy as a rock. If the 9800 was out today in the UK, would i buy one? No.. 3 months left on my current contract. But then, I most likely will
Those that buy on day 1 either have no contract (PAYG), have more money than sense (2 phones!, ebay?) or are just VERY lucky!
iPhone sales tend to be massive, then wane… NEW VERSION! Massive, then wane…
BB sales from what I have seen tend to be a more consistent (maintainable?) rate
bit of numbers fluff from 2009 cutesy of http://www.gartner.com to put numbers into context
iPhone was almost certainly 2009’s top-selling single smartphone after racking up world shipments of 24.89m units.
Research in Motion’ BlackBerry OS was used by 34.35m smartphones
80.88m smartphones shipped had Symbian OS on board.
edit:removed unnecessary html tags
Edited 2010-08-18 18:25 UTC
hey, it would be a start at least.
RIM products just… yick. I’ve never liked them, I’ve never wanted one, and really — I wouldn’t take one if it was given to me. No really, I turned down a free blackberry a few years ago. Horrible devices.
Yes iPhone is an awesome device – I have the 1st gen but when it dies I do not intend to get another iPhone (4 or 5 or whatever).
I use Macs and Linux at home, Win7/Xp at work. I use an iPhone 1st gen as my regular phone and have also used the Sony Xperia X10 mini running Android.
iOS on iPhone is like using a Mac. The software is well thought through and very well integrated with the h/w. Very nice. A little slow but very nice.
Android is like Windows7/XP on a PC. Works well most of the time but gives me more trouble than a Mac. Android will always be the most popular OS on handheld devices but will always have less than desired integration with h/w.
iPhone 3GS in my country sells for “full price” ($800) and still comes locked to a network. At that price I can get a netbook!! iPhone 4 is not yet here but rumored to cost $1022 when launched!!
I got my iPhone 2G used for $150 and jail-broke it. It is the cheapest smart phone I have bought. But I’m not going to shell out $1K for a smart phone (also given Apple’s extremely sucky after sales support in my country if I am the unlucky guy with the rare phone that has problems I am screwed).
I want a device that will have a moderately large screen, sync with my computers, have decent email, and browsing support. Blackberry has well constructed phones and the OS is designed for only BB phones – reasonably well tested and integrated with h/w. BB Torch looks like it may fit the bill.