Blackberry and iPhone May Butt Heads
Research In Motion Ltd., the Waterloo company famous for its BlackBerry franchise, recently announced a 73% increase in Q1 profits, which they attributed to demand for its new products, including its (BlackBerry) Curve cell phone that was released about a month ago. The Curve integrates a music player, video player, camera, and other features, and is RIM’s lightest and smallest device that incorporates a full keyboard. Despite the Curve’s formidable array of features, some analysts believe that the iPhone, which gets unleashed tomorrow, poses a threat.
"Competition is growing as the market for e-mail phones grows. Sales of advanced phones with e-mail and Web browsers will rise 43 percent to $6 billion this year in the U.S. alone, according to research firm Strategy Analytics."
"'While there may be an impact from iPhone, I don't think it's enough to offset the near-term positive trends. The [iPhone]… may reduce BlackBerry sales for AT&T,' alleged Lawrence Harris, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York."
"'While there may be an impact from iPhone, I don't think it's enough to offset the near-term positive trends. The [iPhone]… may reduce BlackBerry sales for AT&T,' alleged Lawrence Harris, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York."
Thoughts on this topic, however, seem to be divided as Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research In Motion, assured us that the iPhone and BlackBerry are not on a collision course since they target different markets. Nonetheless, the iPhone and the Curve are still high-end cell phones and probably will compete with each other on one dimension or another.
