According to Don Reisinger of CNet, Apple is scared of Research in Motion (RIM) and its new Blackberry Storm, and it “should be scared because of its own shortcomings with the iPhone 3G.” On what does Reisinger base this opinion? He says:
To a certain extent, I see his point. While I firmly expect Apple to include cut-and-paste in an upcoming iPhone update (but I could be wrong), and they’ve indicated that tethering would be possible at some future date, I doubt that Steve Jobs will ever go for the removable battery because it would add lines to the sleek iPhone backside. I also don’t expect the iPhone to ever include a memory expansion slot for much the same reason (it would necessitate a hole in the side of the device somewhere). Why are these kinds of features so important? Let’s look at an example, President-Elect Barack Obama. When it comes to his personal computing, Barack is a Mac user. His cell phone, on the other hand, is a Blackberry rather than an iPhone.
Why would Obama choose RIM’s device over Apple’s? Think about his schedule over the last several months. He spent every spare minute campaigning for the presidency, flying and driving from state to state, city to city, venue to venue. Chances are he didn’t have time to sit down for long enough to charge his phone. With the Blackberry and its removable battery, that wasn’t an issue. He could pop out the dead battery, pop in a charged one, and get right back to “communicating”. Had he used the iPhone, every so often he’d have had to plug the phone in to charge. That would have left him tethered to one location for a while, or left him without a phone. (We’ll assume he only owns one phone.)
For a busy executive, the ability to swap out a dead battery as needed during the day is extremely valuable, and something the iPhone’s “one piece” design doesn’t offer. While I do know an executive with an iPhone, I know many with a Blackberry. Reisinger says, “I have a feeling that the cell phone war between Apple and RIM will look much like the operating-system war Apple is fighting against Microsoft: RIM will hold the business ground and Apple the consumer space. ” That may well be true. As we’ve discussed before, there are reasons why Apple doesn’t do well in the corporate space:
- Corporations like to have multiple sources for their products. That way, they can negotiate a better deal with one supplier or switch to another. Apple tends to keep such a tight control on its technology and pricing that there aren’t lots of alternatives. The Mac is only available from Apple. The iPhone is only available from Apple and (in the USA) AT&T. You can’t load OS X on HP hardware (legally at least) and save a few bucks off a Mac purchase. You can’t get an iPhone from your choice of Sprint, Verizon, or T-Mobile.
- Corporations like technology roadmaps. Large corporate customers of Dell, HP, and similar PC vendors are privvy to the manufacturer’s plans and know in advance when a “company standard” model is about to be discontinued, when the manufacturer plans to switch to a new technology (like USB 3.0), etc. Apple likes to keep its plans secret, so a corporation never knows when an Apple device is about to become obsolete, or when Apple will introduce a needed or desired technology in their products.
- Corporations care about security, in most cases at the expense of ease of use. That means complex passwords, smart cards, biometrics, encryption, and other technologies. For Apple, ease of use is the first priority, and security takes a back seat to that.
Apple has made strides in these areas. They’ve added Exchange integration, tightened up some of the security holes, and tried to make the iPhone more attractive to business. But RIM has operated in the business marketplace far more successfully than Apple has in the past. While I don’t know that Apple is “scared” of RIM and the Blackberry, I’m sure they recognize that they face a challenge from RIM in the corporate space. It will be interesting to see how, or even if, they choose to respond.