BlackBerry users running out of loyalty: 50 percent plan to defect to iPhone or Andro

[dougp]

From Engadget:

Nielson has its own angle on the smartphone numbers game out today, and the results vaguely resemble the numbers from Canalys. Perhaps more interesting than the ever present market share tug-of-war (Nielson pegs Google, RIM, and Apple at 27 percent, 33 percent, and 23 percent in sales to new smartphone subscribers, respectively) a note on brand loyalty turns out ugly for BlackBerry: while 89 percent of iPhone owners plan on getting another iPhone, and 71 percent of Android buyers plan to re-up, only 42 percent of BlackBerry owners plan to stick around. The defectors are pretty evenly split, with 29 percent planning to go iPhone, and 21 percent to go Android. That compares to 2 and 3 percent in the iPhone and Android camps planning a move to BlackBerry. We'll see if BlackBerry 6 can solve this little problem for RIM, but the few tweaks we've seen so far seem hardly capable of stemming the flow.

What do our BB loyalists think about this?

 

[gsaldivar]

RIM's momentum is what is keeping them in the game. It takes a significant effort and years of refinement to displace a platform with that much market share. But they are definitely falling behind the curve with new subscribers. I get the impression that many of my hardcore BB users feel that they have waited long enough for RIM to address the shortcomings and are now willing to try something completely new, and I don't mean OS6...

 

[boomhower]

The hot thing right now is large screen touch phones. BB only has the Storm 2 if it's even still being made. The Pre looking slider will help on the consumer. BB OS 6 also looks promising helping them on the multimedia side but they have to develop a phone that consumers want. They will always do well on the business side but they evolve if they want to stay competitive in the private sector. Releasing the same phone over and over with only small improvements isn't going to work in this market. Not may folks are going to upgrade from a Tour to a Bold to gain a little speed and an optical track pad.

 

[DivideBYZero]

I think it makes an interesting story for a blog post and is a reflection of what a wasted opportunity OS5.x was.

I also think that anyone discounting BlackBerry 6 has another thing coming.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I think it makes an interesting story for a blog post and is a reflection of what a wasted opportunity OS5.x was.

I also think that anyone discounting BlackBerry 6 has another thing coming.

If your wife has any bb stock, I would strongly encourage her to sell in the next few months...

 

[Cuda1447]

The first blackberry curve came out what... 3 years ago? Outside of the Storm, how has blackberry innovated AT ALL in the last 3 years? The same three years that saw massive innovation from Apple and Android? It's no surprise RIM is dying, albeit slowly, but they are. They need a game changer to keep from slowly dwindling away. At least Microsoft is trying (probably going to fail, but they are trying) RIM is simply resting on their lorales, which in this market, is a bad idea.

 

[DivideBYZero]

The first blackberry curve came out what... 3 years ago? Outside of the Storm, how has blackberry innovated AT ALL in the last 3 years? The same three years that saw massive innovation from Apple and Android? It's no surprise RIM is dying, albeit slowly, but they are. They need a game changer to keep from slowly dwindling away. At least Microsoft is trying (probably going to fail, but they are trying) RIM is simply resting on their lorales, which in this market, is a bad idea.

This simply isn't the case. BlackBerry 6 is a huge leap forward.


Take a look at some leaked NDA'd slides for developers:
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2010/08/02/leaked-blackberry-6-developer-briefing-shows-upcoming-apis/

 

[dougp]

This simply isn't the case. BlackBerry 6 is a huge leap forward.


Take a look at some leaked NDA'd slides for developers:
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2010/08/02/leaked-blackberry-6-developer-briefing-shows-upcoming-apis/

All these things have been available on both the iPhone and Android devices for years. The thing BB really innovated was push email, notifications on the go and BB Messenger. With Exchange Push, notification services for applications and chat clients on the go - where's the need? What exactly will BB bring to the table? Ask Palm what it's like to arrive to the party 2 years late.

 

[MrX8503]

My friend is a die hard BB fan. She is another BB user who is looking to make the transition to Android. My friend is also an extreme qwerty keyboard typist who is so quick she can type page long emails with her eyes closed, literally.

That is a pretty hard habit to break when moving to an all touch phone. Her last phone was the LG chocolate, which she hated the touch controls on. Because of that my friend has stayed away from touch smartphones under the impression that touch screens were unresponsive.

Despite all of this, she's willing to move to Android because of the advantages the OS offers. Unless your work/business depended on it, I'm not sure who would choose a BB over an iPhone/Android device.

BB phones have been outdated both hardware/software wise for years. RIM is very lucky to even have the customers they do.

 

[pm]

Unless your work/business depended on it, I'm not sure who would choose a BB over an iPhone/Android device.BB phones have been outdated both hardware/software wise for years. RIM is very lucky to even have the customers they do.

I know a lot - well at least more than a couple - of Blackberry users who are really happy with with their Blackberries and really don't want a touch screen. They don't want to surf the web on a tiny screen and they don't play video games at all. They want a rock solid cell phone with a keyboard, that's small and has good battery life. My uncle and my sister are like this. They have very limited interest in either an iPhone or an Android device - although my sister bought an iPod Touch to use at the gym and to surf the net when she's travelling - but when I pointed out that she could carry one phone if she bought and iPhone she said "I can't type fast enough on that screen and the battery life isn't good enough" and it's hard to argue with that.

 

[zerocool84]

I know a lot - well at least more than a couple - of Blackberry users who are really happy with with their Blackberries and really don't want a touch screen. They don't want to surf the web on a tiny screen and they don't play video games at all. They want a rock solid cell phone with a keyboard, that's small and has good battery life. My uncle and my sister are like this. They have very limited interest in either an iPhone or an Android device - although my sister bought an iPod Touch to use at the gym and to surf the net when she's travelling - but when I pointed out that she could carry one phone if she bought and iPhone she said "I can't type fast enough on that screen and the battery life isn't good enough" and it's hard to argue with that.

Yep I know tons of people who are die-hard Blackberry users. People are acting like it's a bad thing to like BB's.

 

[BenSkywalker]

They want a rock solid cell phone with a keyboard, that's small and has good battery life.

Just thought I would throw out there that those that want a rock solid cell phone certainly wouldn't consider a BlackBerry. They are without a doubt the least stable smart phone on the market and require battery pulls at frequent intervals to keep them running. I can understand some of the reasons why people want a BB, but being rock solid is one of the best reasons not to own a BB.

As far as form factor concerns-

WinMo-

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/...Mobile-Dash-3G

Sym-

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/...hone=Nokia-E73

Android-

http://www.androidcentral.com/motorola-charm-may-bring-new-motoblur-android-21-t-mobile

As of this point the only thing RIM has going for it is if people's work requires a BB in particular. I understand the iPhone may be out for those that demand a keyboard, but even when we limit the form factor to those just like the non touch BB's, it is easy to find phones with superior functionality and performance along with being far more stable.

Perhaps BB6 will launch and improve to a shocking degree the BB experience, I have half a dozen friends IRL that currently are using BBs and all of them plan on it being their last BB(Android and iPhone both offer the corporate support needed now for the last hold outs to give up the platform). For RIMs sake, BB6 ends up being stellar and they push it out to existing customers so we can keep as many competitors as possible in the market.

 

[MrX8503]

BB has great battery life because it doesn't have a 1ghz processor nor does it pull much data.

I think the biggest thing is the keyboard. Once people are comfortable with that, its hard for them to go with a touch screen.

 

[Kanalua]

Just defected...dumped my Curve (8320) and went with a Galaxy S (Vibrant)...

 

[MJinZ]

I know a lot - well at least more than a couple - of Blackberry users who are really happy with with their Blackberries and really don't want a touch screen. They don't want to surf the web on a tiny screen and they don't play video games at all. They want a rock solid cell phone with a keyboard, that's small and has good battery life. My uncle and my sister are like this. They have very limited interest in either an iPhone or an Android device - although my sister bought an iPod Touch to use at the gym and to surf the net when she's travelling - but when I pointed out that she could carry one phone if she bought and iPhone she said "I can't type fast enough on that screen and the battery life isn't good enough" and it's hard to argue with that.

Droid.

/Your friend's whine

 

[MJinZ]

BB has great battery life because it doesn't have a 1ghz processor nor does it pull much data.

I think the biggest thing is the keyboard. Once people are comfortable with that, its hard for them to go with a touch screen.

BB has great low power management.

When I used my Blackberry for Sprint Navigation, good bye battery life in a mere hour.

 

[herm0016]

i have never had to battery pull my BB. my BB gets thrown on the dash of my work truck and rides down dirt/gravel/stream bed roads, gets dropped in the dirt, gets squished in the pocket of my FR coveralls. I would have cracked the glass on the Iphone, broken a touch screen or 2 at least by now. all i do is blow it out with a can of air once in a while and it works like new.

are you really sure about 'Just thought I would throw out there that those that want a rock solid cell phone certainly wouldn't consider a BlackBerry." ??
I have seen too many other phones go to the trash in my line of work. my BB has never let me down when i have needed to be in communication with someone at the camp.

 

[thescreensavers]

^ your one of the few, but question do you have any apps on your phone? Do you have lots of emails? and what device is it?

Blackberry needs some serious HorsePower since the OS is inefficient and clumsy, maybe with OS6 it will be better, it better be.

With my Blackberry storms Dual Core CPU, it could not scroll through anything smoothly, not even text messages. Forget websites. All because of the OS inefficient use of the CPU.

The only reason most of blackberry users have a blackberry is for BBM.

The other users use the Email function for business and its one of the best.

 

[gsaldivar]

This simply isn't the case. BlackBerry 6 is a huge leap forward.


Take a look at some leaked NDA'd slides for developers:
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2010/08/02/leaked-blackberry-6-developer-briefing-shows-upcoming-apis/

I think you missed his point...

Somehow I doubt that RIM has been "hard at work" on OS6 for all these many years, while continuing to release phone after phone with the same tired operating system...

I think RIM is only recently waking up to the fact that they can't rely on their momentum going forward, and have shifted their OS development into high gear in response to Android and iOS4...

Does that mean OS6 isn't a huge leap forward? No.

Does that mean OS6 won't be highly anticipated? No.

It simply means that RIM is falling behind the curve with new subscribers. Realistically, OS6 is at least a year late to the game. When it's finally released RIM will be playing a solid game of catch-up trying to convince people to choose a Blackberry over an Android or iPhone...

 

[gsaldivar]

I think the biggest thing is the keyboard. Once people are comfortable with that, its hard for them to go with a touch screen.

I had no trouble making the switch. I'm faster now with one finger than I ever was with a physical keyboard...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuP6AQPRpUg&feature=haxa_popt00us13#t=0m35s

 

[MrX8503]

I think you missed his point...

Somehow I doubt that RIM has been "hard at work" on OS6 for all these many years, while continuing to release phone after phone with the same tired operating system...

I think RIM is only recently waking up to the fact that they can't rely on their momentum going forward, and have shifted their OS development into high gear in response to Android and iOS4...

I couldn't agree with this more.

BB OS 6
Symbian 4
WinMo 7

None of these major players were hard at work and are just a response to the fierce competition from Android/iOS4.

Android/iOS4 have been in development for several years prior to even BB O6, Symbian4, or WinMo7 was conceived. Which is why we are all still playing the waiting game for these OSs to release.

 

[DivideBYZero]

All these things have been available on both the iPhone and Android devices for years. The thing BB really innovated was push email, notifications on the go and BB Messenger. With Exchange Push, notification services for applications and chat clients on the go - where's the need? What exactly will BB bring to the table? Ask Palm what it's like to arrive to the party 2 years late.

This argument constantly amazes me. Android and iPhone have been catching up with Blackberry in the last three years. In fact you cite Push email(which is only available for one mail service on non BB), notifications and IM which were emulated on these new platforms and, IMHO, have yet to be bettered. BBM is an awesome IM system. Sending voice notes, pictures, map locations along with all the usual IM functions in real time is fantastic and there is no other system like it on any platform, mobile or desktop.

When competitors replicated these, they did so with a nicer UI and so people assume that is better because when it does something, it does it with a flourish. This is great innovation, but that's as far as it goes, in the main.

Now, RIM identify that they lack flourish, need to engage devs more, give them better APIs, so they make the epic updates to the OS, but the geek mindshare has gone. Does RIM need that? It's an often overstated influence, often extolled only by geeks, to geeks. "I can root my droid", "I can Jailbreak my iPhone". Great, but 99.9% of users won't or just don't care. "I have a 1Ghz processor and 512Mb of RAM", most won't even know that their devices have processors or RAM to quote, and even then most won't run around comparing it like a game of Top Trumps.

As for comparing BlackBerry to Palm, I think you're just trolling with that comment. Palm move around 800k devices per qtr, RIM ship over 11m in the same time frame. You couldn't buy RIM for $1.2Bn when they make ~$15Bn a year.

It's not much fun being a BlackBerry fan and posting about it right now, especially in this forum, but maybe todays announcements will give you all something to think about. There is much schadenfreude in tech forums when a brand is not the best or most popular.

 

[DivideBYZero]

^ your one of the few, but question do you have any apps on your phone? Do you have lots of emails? and what device is it?

Blackberry needs some serious HorsePower since the OS is inefficient and clumsy, maybe with OS6 it will be better, it better be.

With my Blackberry storms Dual Core CPU, it could not scroll through anything smoothly, not even text messages. Forget websites. All because of the OS inefficient use of the CPU.

The only reason most of blackberry users have a blackberry is for BBM.

The other users use the Email function for business and its one of the best.

OK, don't take any of this personally.

- "Blackberry needs some serious HorsePower since the OS is inefficient and clumsy", really? Hang on, when BlackBerrys had only 64Mb RAM they were inefficient? The 81xx, 88xx and so on. This is an incorrect statement, IMHO.
- You're Storm is not 'dual core'. Like most smartphones it has an application processor in addition to the radio CPU.

The Storm scrolls perfectly, in my experience. My Storm 2 is hooked up to my BES, has endless emails and calendar entries, tons of apps and games and runs great. I'm sorry to hear you have not had such a great experience. If you like I can help you with your Storm. PM me and I can advise what you need to do to get it working smoothly.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Just thought I would throw out there that those that want a rock solid cell phone certainly wouldn't consider a BlackBerry. They are without a doubt the least stable smart phone on the market and require battery pulls at frequent intervals to keep them running. I can understand some of the reasons why people want a BB, but being rock solid is one of the best reasons not to own a BB.

Hmm. I guess we could all post anecdotal evidence claiming that iPhone or Android were also unstable and needed restarting, too, but that would be childish.

"Battery pulls at frequent intervals", bothers me most though. I just checked the uptime on my device and it says it's been up for just over 130 hours. The last restart was required as I'd installed an App that required a restart of the device. To put this into perspective, I also know android and iPhone users, and they need to restart their devices, but I'm not going to make wild claims about instability. Please try to keep to facts, as your last statement was extremely inaccurate.

 

[OS]

i had a storm and it was the worst phone i've ever had (for its class)

bb will have to pay me to use their next product