The soaring popularity of the new iPhone 4 and Android cell phones may leave some wondering if the formerly popular BlackBerry has a bleak future. It seems like the BlackBerries, which used to be seen everywhere, are now harder to spot.
Auburn U. multimedia production professor Robert French isn’t too worried about BlackBerry’s future, though.
“These things are so hard to predict, but I actually happened to be in New York just recently and BlackBerry had a presentation and I find it hard to believe the company is going away,” French said. “Remember, it is a world market and the United States is not by any means the majority.”
Chris Metzger, an Auburn senior majoring in accounting, said he would trade his BlackBerry in for an iPhone with no hesitation.
“I believe BlackBerries are more for business and iPhones are more for being social. They are targeted towards the younger crowd that is not as business-minded yet,” Metzger said. “The only one thing I would miss on my BlackBerry is BBM (BlackBerry messenger).”
Metzger is correct about the demographic of BlackBerries. According to www.marketingcharts.com, iPhones and Androids have more users who fall below the age of 34 than BlackBerry does.
BlackBerry still holds the majority of the cell phone market overall, though, with 35 percent of cell phone users owning a BlackBerry, 28 percent using an iPhone, and with Android, the next closest competitor to iPhone, holding only 9 percent of the market share.
Just because BlackBerry currently holds the largest percentage of its market does not mean it should stop worrying just yet.
Marketingcharts.com shows iPhone and Android both grew their market shares 2 percent from 2009, while BlackBerry lost 2 percent of its share. iPhone also ranks the highest in customer satisfaction among all cell phones according to a survey done by J.D. Power and Associates.
“Mac is such a cult in some ways,” French said. “If you love it, you love everything they do and have to have everything they make.”
Brian Meyer, an Auburn senior in supply chain management, would consider himself part of that cult.
“There is no way I would switch from my iPhone to a BlackBerry unless my employer made me or gave me a free phone, then I would actually just have two phones, like Ari Gold,” Meyer said.
One of the things Meyer prefers about his iPhone is all of the apps available.
“I love the multitude of apps, especially the music apps, like Shazam,” Meyer said. “Stuff like that just doesn’t exist on a BlackBerry and the track balls on BlackBerries break a lot.”
French actually uses his iPad as a phone.
“I put iPhone apps on an iPad so I can see them. I have such bad eyes that I have to increase everything to twice the size, but then it’s like having a phone the size of a notebook,” French said.
Personal preferences aside, French believes the two companies will hold each other in close competition for a while.
“Until one comes out with a killer app, they’re gonna nibble at each other’s toes,” French said. “There will always be a way to do similar things on both: any smartphone will let you search the web.”