Rumors of Reseach In Motion's iconic BlackBerry Messenger app wriggling its way over to iPhone may be coming to an end. Anonymous sources have claimed that new CEO Thorsten Heins shut down the idea of licensing BlackBerry Messenger to carriers and manufacturers as soon as he stepped in, and was actually against RIM doing any kind of licensing at all. Apparently the issue was "not up for discussion", according to the source. It's unfortunate that he made that call early on, considering he openly admitted to looking into licensing deals during the last quarterly conference call. Ex co-CEO Jim Balsillie was previously rumored to champion BBM on other platforms, a project which new sources claimed was called SMS 2.0 internally. They had even acquired a small company called LiveProfile to work on it.

Now, we already know that iMessage and BBM are pretty comparable, and there are plenty of cross-platform instant messaging apps available, so it's really unclear what problem BlackBerry Messenger can really fix. Adoption is still pretty high according to RIM, but unless they can stem their dwindling smartphone market share, it's not going to count for much.

Right now, RIM's survival hinges on BlackBerry 10, but I somehow doubt they're going to be doing anything mind-blowing with BBM when it comes out in the fall. Would BBM on iOS have helped save RIM at all, or is the market saturated with instant messengers as is and Heins was smart to save on development costs? Keep in mind that most of RIM's revenue is from devices these days, though they may need to pivot towards services if things keep going the way they are. Do you still have friends that use BBM, and if so, how much would you be willing to pay to keep in touch with them? How do you do most of your instant messaging?

Source: WSJ

"Post hoc ergo propter hoc" is Latin for "after it, therefore because of it". That it comes from Latin should indicate how far back that particular fallacy can be traced. Yet ever since Apple launched the original iPhone in 2007, it has been the point of comparison for every flagship phone, from every manufacturer, on every carrier. Just like "post hoc ergo propter hoc" isn't always -- or even often -- true, "post iPhone ergo propter iPhone" isn't always true. Yet time after time, phone after phone, everything from hardware design to software features are taken as derived from, or as being a response to, the iPhone.

There's a theory in combat that dates back to Sun Tsu, if not earlier, called "strike first to gain the initiative". If, in a fight, all you do is defend, you'll eventually make a mistake and get tagged. Even if you're a natural counter-puncher, if you don't take an opportunity when it opens up, at best you'll stall your way to stalemate (and get booed for your efforts), and at worst you'll mess up at some point and get clobbered. That's why a good fighter knows everything is an attack. Everything is an attempt to turn an opponent's mind away from acting and towards reacting.

It can be obvious -- a strike or shoot or something else an opponent has to deal with. Or it can be subtle -- a change of angle or distance that rocks them back on their heels or shoulders and messes with their balance and timing.

Those same essential strategic truths apply to the ancient battlefield, the modern Octagon, and business -- including the smartphone business.

In 2007 Apple didn't introduce a better Treo or BlackBerry, they introduced a better device. They didn't take a tiny little step that entrenched competitors could quickly match. They took a diagonal leap that entrenched competitors either couldn't quickly match, or didn't even understand. They changed the rules of the game. They attacked.

It didn't matter that the 2007 iPhone lacked apps or copy/paste or unobtrusive notifications or MMS or any of a dozen features existing smartphone has on their neat little checklists. It mattered only that multitouch, and the way the iPhone interface leveraged it to make a new experience, was so compelling no one cared what it was missing.

That was an attack.

The shift was so radical that for years after, every other flagship, or would be flagship phone was pitched by desperate competitors and attention-seeking media alike as an "iPhone killer". (Early among them, the Samsung Instinct -- a coincidence, I'm certain.) That the iPhone made every headline, that every device was cast not as something unique unto itself but as something wholly dependent on the gravity well of the iPhone, was the punchline. (No true iPhone killer would ever be called that -- everyone would be too busy talking about it to bother mentioning the iPhone.)

And since then, no one else has done much attacking. Hell, most of Apple's competitors ignored or derided the iPhone at launch. Smartly, Google didn't. They spun on a dime and turned their new Android acquisition from a BlackBerry or Windows Phone Standard (or Nokia Communicator, if you lived in Europe) competitor to an iPhone competitor almost over night.

Yet Apple didn't react. They didn't rush to match any Android features that the iPhone was missing or toss in a hardware keyboard to win over legacy smartphone users. They changed the rules again. They acted again. They attacked again. They announced the App Store.

Palm got back into the game sooner than the other traditional smartphone vendors. But when they made the leap from Palm OS to webOS it was far more audacious than Android. (That tiny, cash-starved Palm literally coded circles around mighty Google, and made a more Google-esque product than Google itself, should be scrawled in permanent marker atop the dessert-laden garden in Mountain View so as to never be forgotten.) While elements of the Palm Pre were inarguably iPhone inspired -- having the former head of Apple hardware, Jon Rubenstein, as their CEO and a lot of Apple engineers on their team will do that -- they played a smart strategy. Rather than matching iPhone features, they tried to hit Apple where Apple was weak -- multitasking, notifications, unified messaging. And unlike the early days of Android, they did it in an elegant, tasteful way.

RIM floundered with the Storm. And the Storm 2. And the Torch. Microsoft stumbled with Windows Mobile 6. And Windows Mobile 6.5. Still, other platforms started adding their own centralized software stores. Android Market (now Google Play), Nokia Ovi Store (no, really), webOS App Catalog BlackBerry App World. By and large, like Palm with the Pre, they tried to differentiate themselves by going where they thought Apple was weak -- openness. It turned out, however, that openness didn't translate into a better user experience. Having great apps and being able to take credit cards in large amount of global markets were far more important. (The "iTunes advantage" was the platform equivalent of having seized the high ground before the battle ever begun.)

Sadly, Palm never made webOS work well enough, fast enough, to catch on before they were brutally bought and betrayed by HP corporate intrigue and ineptitude. Android, however, got some body shots in. The Nexus One was smartly timed to the hit the market right in the middle of Apple's typical year-long product cycle. With great hardware, an improved OS, and features like voice control, it caught influencers at the perfect moment and got a lot of attention. The Droid, meanwhile, seized on the huge, Verizon-sized hole Apple left in its flank by being locked to AT&T in the U.S. for 4 long years. (The Evo did similar on Sprint, and I'm sure something did on T-Mobile as well...)

Apple's limited carrier footprint couldn't stop Android from gaining incredible non-AT&T marketshare, but the iPhone remained a strong enough device that it not only held its own ground with but one flagship a year, on one carrier in the U.S., but kept on growing it.

And then Apple changed the rules again. They acted again. They attacked again. They released the iPad.

It was a tablet launched in 2010 that didn't (and still doesn't) have a desktop or windowing system, that didn't (but now does) have multitasking for 3rd party apps. Like the iPhone in 2007, it didn't matter that the iPad didn't have nearly as much as the decade of Tablet PCs before it. It utterly obliterated and obsoleted its predecessors before it even shipped.

Again, Google reacted. They spun on a dime and rushed out (a still closed-source version of Android), Honeycomb, to compete in the tablet space. Absent the carrier opening it had with the iPhone, however, and left to their own devices, Android tablets haven't caught on. Nor did the incredibly iPad-like Palm TouchPad hardware, even with it's arguably still more elegant multitasking, notification, and messaging software. Nor did the BlackBerry PlayBook, similarly rushed to market without even a chance to put its email on.

Microsoft, meanwhile, finally got Windows Phone off the ground. Unlike Palm, however, they didn't target the iPhone where it was weak. They copied the weaknesses the iPhone had at launch. Weaknesses Apple, for the most part, had long since addressed -- no multitasking, no copy and paste, and an app store that needed to be filled from scratch. The design was new, much to Microsoft's credit. It wasn't the same old app launcher and swapping panels. That part Microsoft absolutely nailed. But taken as a whole, great new design with fundamental flaws in functionality (not to mention branding), it wasn't enough to slow the iPhone's momentum. The same interface gambit that gave Apple its smartphone mindshare in 2007 just wasn't repeatable in 2011. At least not by Windows Phone. (Maybe one of those transparent aluminum jobbies from Avatar or Iron Man, branded as XPhone, could have made that shot...)

BlackBerry is now trying to get back into the game, some 5 years later, with BlackBerry 10. Based on QNX it will offer realtime capabilities and the most promiscuous development story in the smartphone space. The PlayBook, like Honeycomb, shipped before it was fully baked. RIM seems prepared to take their time with BlackBerry 10. We'll have to wait see how that works out for them.

Until then, one essential truth remains indisputable -- Apple, who wasn't even in the smartphone or tablet business before 2006 -- has controlled the pacing of both industries since the moment ever since. While they've given up a step or two, while they've been cut and bloodied a little at times, for the most part they've stood at the center of the ring, cut off the angles, and forced everyone else to circle and fight Apple's fight going on 5 rounds now.

And if the Galaxy S III event is any indication, where Samsung introduced a bigger black slab with music matching and interactive voice control, no one is even challenging them for control of round 6.

Whether you like Apple and their products or would love nothing more than to kill them just to watch them die, everything that matters that's happened in mobile since 2007 is because of Apple and iPhone, or has been in response to Apple and the iPhone.

Post iPhone ergo propter iPhone.

And as someone who loves technology even more than I love the iPhone, I'm well past tired of it.

At BlackBerry World 2012, RIM has finally given us a sneak preview of their next generation BlackBerry 10 operating system. It won't be released until later in 2012, likely pitting it head-to-head against iOS 6 and iPhone 5,1, and a lot can change, but here's some of what we've seen so far:

• Highly gesture based. That'll be quick for power-users who become familiar with the system, but RIM will have to work hard to make it discoverable enough to get new users on board.
• Sliding layers of information. Something that looks like an extension of Twitter for iPad, you can slide the screen aside to see notifications behind, slide layers over to get more information, etc.
• Virtual keyboard. Looks very BlackBerry, works to "learn" how each individual types so it can personalize the experience. Presents words you can "flick up" to enter. (See CrackBerry's coverage of the BlackBerry 10 keyboard.)
• Time travel camera. When you take a picture, it records frames before and after and you can pick the perfect shot from that period of time. Be interesting to see what resolution they can get out of that and for how long.
• They also showed off what looked like the BlackBerry 10 versions of FaceTime and AirPlay, on both phones and the PlayBook, stressing their ecosystem play.

Right now there's only the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha to actually get hands-on with, and again a lot can change between now and "later this year" when they release, especially in so competitive a market. A lot of their initial keynote sounded like something straight out of CrackBerry Kevin's smartphone hierarchy of needs. Whether they can focus, target, and most importantly, ship, remains to be seen.

Check out the video below and let us know what you think. Will BlackBerry 10 make RIM competitive again? Anything you see in BlackBerry 10 that you'd like to see in iOS 6?

Source: CrackBerry.com

RIM Australia has confirmed that it was responsible for the flashmob attack on a Sydney Apple Store. The campaign against Apple titled 'Wake Up' was originally pinned on Samsung. Samsung denied it and now RIM Australia has confirmed that it was responsible via a press release after the accompanying website was traced back to RIM.

We can confirm that the Australian ‘Wake Up’ campaign, which involves a series of experiential activities taking place across Sydney and Melbourne, was created by RIM Australia. A reveal will take place on May 7th that will aim to provoke conversation on what ‘being in business’ means to Australians.

The flashmob took place outside the Apple Store in Sydney; a bus full of protestors all dressed in black left the bus and lined up outside the store’s window. They then produced signs that they held up against the windows with the words ‘Wake Up’ emblazoned across them. The flashmob then chanted ‘Wake Up’ through the window at Apple’s staff and customers.

It should be noted that RIM Australia probably operates with a great deal independence from RIM corporate when it comes to marketing, with their own budget and agency. It's possible RIM corporate had little or no knowledge of the campaign, and could be finding out about it at the same time we are -- during BlackBerry World 2012. If that's the case, this probably isn't a distraction they're enjoying right now.

Source: MacTalk

Despite offering to license the nano-SIM standard royalty-free, Apple is getting flak from RIM for recruiting additional proxies in the voting process. Nokia had made similar complaints when Apple initially made the proposal to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. Here's what RIM had to say about Apple employees taking voting spots for SK Telekom, Bell Mobility, and KT.

We kindly ask that neither shall a person of one company who is appointed to carrythe votes of another company be entitled to cast a vote on behalf of that company, nor shall a personof one company who is registered in the place of a person from another company and appointed tocast a vote on behalf of that other company, be allowed to cast a vote on behalf of that company.

Reportedly, ETSI voting on the issue will be put on hold for at least another 30 days.

Source: SlashGear

RIM is losing grip on its own turf, as Apple has surpassed iPhone shipments compared to BlackBerry in Canada, according to recent IDC data. Current estimates place RIM's 2011 sales in Canada at 2.08 million, versus the 2.85 million iPhones sold in the Great White North. Considering in 2008 BlackBerry out-sold iPhone 5-to-1, this is a pretty big change and a major symbolic victory for Apple. Meanwhile, U.S. sales revenue are down 45%, which, combined with the 23% drop in Canada, resulted in a global revenue dip of 5.9%. Of course, RIM is still doing reasonably well elsewhere in the world, but a hit like that just about cancels out any momentum BlackBerry has internationally.

As a Canadian and a guy who still uses a BlackBerry, it's a little sad to see RIM slipping, but they're simply taking way too long to get their next-gen devices out the door. The new CEO, Thorsten Heins, seems set on getting products shipped on time and improving the marketing message, but even ardent BlackBerry loyalists have been waiting for things to pick up for awhile now; it's no surprise to see market share starting to slip.

Any BlackBerry expatriates in the house? Canadians, how do you feel about the home team losing ground?

Source: Bloomberg

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will soon be ditching their BlackBerrys in favor of iPhones and iPads. We've seen several examples recently of large enterprises, even major multinationals like Halliiburton, going all-in on iOS, and it's interesting to see the other half of BlackBerry's traditional base, government, do likewise.

According to Joseph F. Klimavicz, NOAA Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications, they will support the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 running iOS 5 and above.

Going forward employees will no longer be supplied with BlackBerrys but iPhones and iPads instead, though it's not specified when employees would the change over would begin.

Good enough used to be a mantra for both government and enterprise, and it used to mean user experience. Sure, the software wasn't the best, but it was good enough, cheap enough, and ubiquitous enough that no one would ever get fired for buying more of it. But that's begun to change, and Apple, with very little in the way of a business sales force, seems to be instigating that change.

I remember a few years back when I was working in a corporate environment that supplied BlackBerry, we weren't allowed to use our iPhones even if we purchased them ourselves. RIM had a stronghold when it came to corporate clients. Now those same companies are looking for alternatives, testing iOS and Android and more often than not choosing iPhones and iPads.

Predictability and security are still big for government and enterprise.

Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 devices will certainly have something to say about that in the future, but with almost all of the Fortune 500 companies already testing or deploying iOS devices in one manner or another, momentum is certainly in Apple's favor right now.

When you look around the desks and conference tables at your place of business, what devices are you seeing most often?

Source: The Loop

Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy corporations with over 70,000 employees worldwide, will be making a huge move away from BlackBerrys, and converting their employees to iPhones. For those still not convinced about the iPhone and iOS' place in enterprise, this decision comes after Halliburton did significant research into both Apple's platform and the Android, and decided Apple was the way to go.

BlackBerry is undoubtedly still the best communications device on the planet, but increasingly users and businesses alike are requiring more than just communication -- they're requiring mobile computing platforms.

To give a sense of the breadth of this change, Energy Services Group (ESG) is Halliburton's largest business segment and provides technical products and services for petroleum and natural gas exploration and production. Up until now Halliburton employees had been given BlackBerries. If they wanted an alternative the only option they were given were Windows Phones. BlackBerry have been part of Halliburton's IT policy for over 10 years. Right now Halliburton supplies about 4,500 of their employees with BlackBerry smartphones.

BlackBerrys have long been the staple of enterprise -- they performed well and lived up to what enterprise customers have come to expect. The iPhone and iPad have made great strides over the past several iterations of iOS in order to provide better support for business users. And it's paying off.

More and more companies are starting to support iOS in enterprise on a regular basis, while others are letting the users choose with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) initiatives.

Apple recently announced that pretty much all of the Fortune 500 were testing or deploying iOS devices within their organizations, which is startling considering how slowly enterprise usually is when it comes to responding to new technologies.

Even RIM has made moves to provide BlackBerry enterprise support for iPhone and iPad. Now we just need RIM's new CEO to provide full on BlackBerry Connect functionality before other companies, like Good ride iPhone and iPad success to an insurmountable lead.

Are you using your iPhone in the enterprise? Let us know how wide iPhone and iPad deployment is where you work, and how they're affecting productivity.

Source: AppleInsider

It's actually happened -- after bringing BlackBerry from pager to the top of the smartphone world only to see the iPhone and Android all but demolish their share, RIM today announced founders and co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie would be stepping down, and current operations head Thorsten Heins would be taking over as the new, unified CEO.

And one of his first official acts was to call our own Kevin Michaluk, founder of CrackBerry.com and #1 BlackBerry fanboy.

It's hard to express just how big of a change this is for RIM. Let's put it this way. Since launching CrackBerry.com in 2007 I have been wanting to get an interview with RIM's CEOs. It has never happened. With Thorsten, it happened in literally minutes, and it wasn't even me who asked for it to happen, but rather it was the CEO wanting to do it. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Mike and Jim and all they have done for BlackBerry over the years, but it's clear that for BlackBerry to thrive again RIM needed a shake up, and I think Thorsten is going to do an amazing job leading the way.

With their marketshare continuing to slide, lackluster PlayBook sales, and QNX/BlackBerry 10 superphones still months away, it's clear RIM needed to do something to reassure investors and enthusiasts alike. Here's wishing Heins every success. Strong BlackBerry competition is good for everyone. Bring it on.

Source: CrackBerry.com

According to Nielsen, the amount of all smartphones running iOS -- namely the iPhone -- rose from 30% to 37% over the last 3 months, compared to the share of all smartphones running Android OS -- namely 8 googlezillion at last official count -- rose from 46.3% to 51.7%. The growth came largely at the expense of BlackBerry, which shrank from 14.9% to 6% over the same period.

Among recent smartphone purchasers, Apple jumped from 25.1% last quarter to 44.5% while Android slowed from 61.6% to 46.9% and BlackBerry slid from 7.7% to 4.5%.

Given the tremendous success of the iPhone 4S last quarter, which ended prior to the launch of the next-generation Android 4.0 devices, and saw RIM still stuck in the great desert of the QNX/BB10 platform transition, the numbers aren't surprising. Once we get deeper into Apple's typical year-long product cycle, and new Android 4.0 devices start hitting the market in earnest, the figure will almost certainly change again.

However, that Apple continues to have the most popular single phones on the market, and a phenomenally disproportionate profit share, should perhaps be an indicator that better, more nuanced, and more contextual analysis are needed from metrics companies.

Source: Nielsen via Android Central

While we often complain about Apple's over-curation of the App Store, here's a cautionary tale about what happens when a $500 BlackBerry App World "app" meets a CrackBerry.com founder left alone in Vegas without adult supervision.

I'll save the back story of how I decided I needed to buy the app for our next CrackBerry Podcast (for now let's just say I was triple dog dared into it), but buy it I did. And you know what they say, What happens in Vegas ends up on Youtube, so check out the video above to see this Limited Edition desktop clock app get purchased and installed onto my BlackBerry Bold 9900. While at the time of purchase I thought this was the most expensive app in App World, turns out there are quite a few overpriced clock apps in there. And while I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in the world to have bought the Cesar HQ app, looking at the other clock apps I discovered one review by another person on another $600 clock app, so it looks like there is at least one other sucker out there.

Apple yanked the notorious I Am Rich app from the App Store a short time after it launched and has made it a policy not to allow similar apps since. While RIM evidently doesn't enforce similar restrictions, and it was nice of Kevin to single-handily double App World sales last night, bottom line, Adam is never allowed leaving Vegas before Kevin does again.

Source: CrackBerry.com

RIM announced their Q3 2011 results today, including the bloodbath that is PlayBook sales, and clusterfrak that is BlackBerry 10 superphones not being available until late 2012.

RIM needs to either get it together and become the competition we sorely need, or hope their stock drops low enough that CrackBerry Kevin can buy them with left over watch money and turn them around himself.

Either way, it deeply angers me to have to say, I informed you thusly.

Apple had their big Let's talk iPhone event a couple of weeks ago and have now released [iOS 5](http://www.imore.com/iOS 5) and iCloud, and launched the iPhone 4S -- now it's RIM's and Google's turn.

Kevin and Adam from CrackBerry.com are live at BlackBerry Dev Con 2011, hoping to get their keyboard-crunching hands on a next generation BBX (QNX) based superphone and Playbook OS 2.0.

• Full BlackBerry Dev Con 2011 coverage

Phil and the gang over at Android Central are waiting for the big Ice Cream Sandwich and Galaxy Nexus (Prime) reveal from Google and Samsung tonight.

• Full Ice Cream Sandwich and Galaxy Nexus coverage

Keep an eye on both, then run -- don't walk! -- back here and tell us how you think they compete with iOS 5, iCloud, and iPhone 4S. Did they raise the stakes?

Kevin Michaluk of sibling site CrackBerry.com has just posted his BlackBerry Torch 9860, and just like his BlackBerry Bold 9900, it's jam packed with detail.

Now, if you were as confused as I was by RIM's new naming conventions, let's try to help -- this Torch is pretty much what the Storm used to be, a full screen, touch screen BlackBerry, with no slide-out keyboard like the original Torch (and no SurePress like the original Storm, thankfully.) Of course, there's also still a Torch with a slide out keyboard. (Could they have at least called that a Torch Pro, like HTC would have?)

Either way, this is in fact the closest thing to an iPhone RIM makes. So how does it stack up?

It's a smooth device that will certainly be a seller. How big of a seller is yet to be seen. Users that want the big screen and don't mind not having a physical keyboard will be in BlackBerry heaven. Once you adjust to using the virtual keyboard there really isn't much bad to be said about the 9860. But if you're like me, you want to get things done efficiently and in my opinion, having a keyboard really helps that cause, even if I have to sacrifice potential display real estate for a screen. I know I'm in the minority on that one these days - you should definitely head to your local store and try out the Torch 9860 and come to your own conclusions. If playing videos, viewing photos, snapping pictures and web browsing are tops on your list, then I can say the Torch 9860 may be just what you're looking for. With the boosted processor and increased RAM, the OS trucks along fast enough to keep up with pretty much anything you can throw at it.

Once again I'll ask -- if you're walking into a store this fall, iPhone 5 on one side, Android phone de jour on the other, would you walk past them for a BlackBerry Torch 9860? Check out Kevin's review and let us know.

[CrackBerry.com]

Kevin Michaluk of sibling site CrackBerry.com has just posted his BlackBerry Bold 9900, with all the detail you'd expect, and a slick new presentation style that's certain to wake you up. While many may think the new BlackBerry Storm 3 full screen BlackBerry Torch will be the true iPhone competitor from RIM, it's hard to bet against the thing BlackBerry does best -- front facing QWERTY.

Bottom line, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the best BlackBerry to date. We love the design, and the upgraded hardware platform delivers a ton of performance to the end user. It really is the best of BlackBerry as we have known it.

That said, there's nothing fundamentally different in BlackBerry 7 that's going to change the way you use your BlackBerry. For some that's not a bad thing. For others it may be. There has always been a lot to like in the BlackBerry OS. And this is the same BlackBerry OS, with the same strengths and the same weaknesses. It's still by far the best mobile platform for communication and it's still lagging in areas like the quality third party apps.

So if you're walking into a store this fall, iPhone 5 on one side, Android phone de jour on the other, would you walk past them for a BlackBerry Bold 9900? Check out Kevin's review and let us know.

[CrackBerry.com]

Apple opened a handful of new Apple Stores today, none more amusingly placed than the one in Waterloo, Ontario, the hometown of BlackBerry maker RIM. Starting today, anyone in Waterloo who wants an iPhone rather than Bold, iPad rather than PlayBook can just wander on over. And according to @Steve_Gamble, they seem to be doing just that:

At the new Apple Store in Waterloo today. The number of Blackberries going dark is astounding!

Anyone else attending the opening of Apple in Waterloo? Any CrackBerry.com-led protests going? Let us know!

[@Steve_Gamble]

We're likely only a month or two away from Apple announcing iPhone 5 but RIM is already launching their 2011 BlackBerry lineup, including the first BlackBerry Bold with a touch screen, and not one but two BlackBerry Torches -- an update to the original slider and new, Storm-replacing, touch screen only slab.

They've got higher resolution screens, NFC options, voice, search, GPU-enhanced Liquid Graphics fluidity, BBM 6, and BlackBerry OS 7. But are they enough to hold off the coming iPhone 5 onslaught?

Jump over to our sibling site, CrackBerry.com, for complete coverage and join us tomorrow for some round-table discussion, Mobile Nations-style!

[CrackBerry.com]

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

Rene, Seth, and Georgia discuss Apple's 20 million iPhone quarter, Android vs. iOS activations, Steve Jobs vs. BlackBerry's Mike Lazaridis, and Lion, and MacBooks and Thunderbolts, oh my! This is iPhone Live!

• Show notes

Hosts

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPhone accessory store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You -- iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

Jonathan Geller, the Boy Genius, reports that Mike Lazardis was convinced of BlackBerry's superior design and feature focus, long after the proverbial ship hit the not-so-proverbial iceberg:

Picture yourself sitting in an executive briefing at Research In Motion. You’d hear Mike Lazaridis unequivocally state time and time again that BlackBerry smartphones would never have MP3 players or cameras in them because it just does not make sense when the company’s primary customers were the government and enterprise. “BlackBerry smartphones will never have cameras because the No. 1 customer of ours is the U.S. government,” Mike Lazaridis would say in meetings. “There will never be a BlackBerry with an MP3 player or camera.”

Compare and contrast with Steve Jobs who put sneaker to stage at WWDC 2007 and showed off the original iPhone, a device that eschewed the design of the market leaders of the day, RIM's BlackBerry and Palm's Treo line. Unlike almost everyone else at the time, the iPhone dropped the keyboard, and replaced the stylus with the finger and multitouch. RIM?

“When you hear Mike talk about the latest and greatest, it’s been the same thing for ten years: security, battery performance, and network performance. RIM has positioned battery life and network performance for years. People are not concerned with iPhone battery life,” one source told me. Network performance, to Mike, trumps any innovation a device like the iPhone offers. “Mike is convinced people won’t buy an iPhone because battery life isn’t as good as a BlackBerry,” a different source said. Mike apparently is in disbelief that people can use over 15GB of data on their iPhone and Android devices, and he feels that people will buy smartphones based on network efficiency, even though carriers with tiered data plans in developed markets love customers who use monstrous amounts of data.

Never mind that they eventually, reluctantly backtracked and shipped camera totting, MP3 rocking, Bold-ly branded, type-on-glass BlackBerrys of their own. They failed to see where the market was going, dismissed where it was, and seemed to only angrily react to where it had long since been. (And whether or not management has come to the personal realizations necessary to turn that around remains unclear.)

To their credit, Google rapidly switched Android from a BlackBerry clone to an iPhone clone. To their detriment, RIM just kept making BlackBerrys, the same ones that owned the world in 2006, long after the world had moved post-2007.

Steve Jobs, meanwhile, probably isn't waiting on anyone to obsolete the iPhone. He likely has all of Apple working on doing that themselves.

[BGR]

How does Apple's brand new iOS 5 iMessage compare to the stalwart Blackberry BBM on BB OS 6? Check out the video above as Kevin Michaluk and Bla1ze from CrackBerry.com bring their Berrys to the table against the iPhone for a one-on-one instant messaging show down! Does BlackBerry still own the crack, or has iOS just become leader of the pack?

BBM is far more functional -- I joked it's like the FaceBook of IM with groups, comments, and more -- while iOS keeps things really simple and bundles it right into the SMS/MMS app.

They're both really snappy, both show writing and delivered states, and offer read receipts, and both are proprietary (yeah) so no cross-platforming yet. BBM is a huge lock-in on BlackBerry and might be the same on iOS.

Could this be enough to make RIM finally bring BBM to iOS? Which would you prefer?

Our good friend CrackBerry Kevin has just gone hands-on with the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930, the new touch-enabled flagship phone from RIM. BlackBerry has always excelled at the front-facing QWERTY, and the Bold 9000 series has been the be very best of their best -- and now with the 9900 and 9930 it's going touch. Not touch like the Storm -- thank Odin for that! -- or even like the original underpowered Torch. No, this is doing it with BlackBerry OS 7, a 287dpi 640x480 screen, and a 1.2GHz processor.

Some questions remain, however. Can BlackBerry really do touch? The PlayBook says they can but this phone still runs BBOS, not the new QNX platform. Is the touchscreen and keyboard, like the old Palm Treo line, the best of both worlds or twice the compromises? And will "super apps" stop being a lame marketing quip and become truly killer software for BlackBerry?

The Bold 9900/9930 will debut this summer, which would typically put them head-to-head with a new iPhone, but this year iPhone 5 might only debut in the fall. Will that help RIM out? Will anyone get a Bold Touch to hold them over? Hit the link below, watch the video, and tell us if Apple and iPhone 4 have anything to worry about.

[CrackBerry]

Following a pilot of iPhone and iPad, Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore says there is no going back to BlackBerry:

The result "was a fantastic experience as it was easier/faster to access data (touch UI) than on the Blackberry. It was also great to only have to carry one device for personal and corporate email access."

They're using Good [iTunes link] for messaging so users complain about the lack of background email receipt, and they do miss the BlackBerry notification light but the positives "far outweigh these issues".

Apple reported over 80% of Fortune 100 were piloting or deploying iPad, an unheard of adoption rate for new technology.

For any of you in enterprise, is iOS an option yet?

[Finextra via 9to5mac]

Over the weekend a former RIM employee stated that when Apple unveiled the first iphone at Macworld 2007, RIM had several emergency meetings which culminated with the BlackBerry maker deciding Apple was lying -- the iPhone wasn't possible. In RIM's opinion a phone with all of the 2007 iPhone's functionality and large touchscreen could not be used without being near a power supply at all times. Shacknews poster, Kentor, heard from his former colleagues:

The iPhone couldn't do what [Apple was] demonstrating without an insanely power hungry processor, it must have terrible battery life. Imagine their surprise [at RIM] when they disassembled an iPhone for the first time and found that the phone was battery with a tiny logic board strapped to it.

RIM's "Apple Killer", released as the BlackBerry Storm in 2008, was their response, but it wasn't until 2010's Torch that they began to close the multitouch and web browser gap. 2011 will see the introduction of their next generation platform, the QNX-powered BlackBerry Playbook, though in tablet form, not smartphone.

Could RIM, Microsoft, and Palm really have been in denial about the iPhone in 2007? Could Apple be in denial about any competitors today?

[ Electronista ]

Why is RIM running away from BlackBerry in order to try and keep up, never mind compete, with Apple's iPad, never mind iPhone? Georgia, Chad, Ally and I spoke about this at length on last Sunday's iPad Live! podcast but given RIM's financial results and accompanying comments this week, I think it's appropriate to get some text behind it now as well.

Note: I'm not going to use direct quotes in this piece. I need a translator to understand RIM's co-CEO's, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. They don't speak any language I'm familiar with, not English, French, Klingon, or marketing. There's no app for translating what they're saying lately, and certainly no web service (zing! reserved, as you'll see later). I've read what CrackBerry Kevin and Sascha Segan, geniuses both, have managed to extract but I'm still baffled. Or RIM is still baffling. I think it's the latter.

End of life equations

BlackBerry is the ultimate communications device for those whose hierarchy of needs are founded on communication. While competition from third-party IM apps is growing, for those who need instant, addictive, information exchange and the best tiny keyboard in the business, BlackBerry still has no equal. It also has no future. It grew from a pager and has been bound and gagged and kept from growing further by the increasingly outdated, increasingly restrictive Java2ME-based architecture. Push-wise their technology is fantastic. Hardware-wise their build quality is among the best. OS-wise they're dead in the water.

Apple faced this with OS 9, bought NeXT, and now we have Mac OS X and iOS. Microsoft faced this with Windows ME and Windows Mobile 6.5, merged NT on the desktop and re-architected on the mobile side, and now we have Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7. Palm faced this with Palm OS and the Treo, went back to the drawing board and came out with webOS and the Pre. Google began making a BlackBerry clone, took one look at iPhone, switched gears, and now we have Android 2.3 Gingerbread (and Chrome OS, perhaps after seeing webOS).

In each of those cases a company whose core technology was at its end of life brought in or rebuilt a new foundation to take them forward another step with their core products. Apple didn't buy NeXT and launch a gaming console. Microsoft didn't bring in NT and launch a walkman competitor. Palm didn't build webOS to get into the printer game (listening HP?), and Google -- well, Android was additive for them; their advertising business is doing just fine thanks. RIM has done the first part, they've bought QNX but instead of using that to build a 14 million a quarter selling iPhone competitor, to make a better BlackBerry... they're deploying it on a tablet to take on the 5 million or so a quarter selling iPad. Instead of using it to regroup, retrench, and relaunch, they're using it to branch out and buy time. And they're making incredible compromises to do it.

Webapps for that

First, RIM is playing the HTML5 card for developers, the one Palm played with webOS 2 years ago. Now HTML5 is great for webapps and maybe webapps are the future but we're nowhere near that future yet. RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie suggested Apple's App Store-class apps are only necessary on iOS because iOS can't handle the web as well as the PlayBook (a product which does not yet exist for consumers). He said "you don't need an app for the web".

Except of course you do. The browser is an app, a generic frame app that's good for most things but not great for all things. My Mac and Windows PCs can all handle the web well -- better than any PlayBook real or imagined -- and I like many others still use native apps all the time. (MailPlane does things with Gmail that Gmail.com stuck in a browser just can't do.) Google, the king of webapps, makes all sorts of native apps because they -- being the king -- they understand the internet pipes better feed native apps at this point than the browser. (Witness the exception that proves the rule -- Chrome OS.)

It's become a cliche but when Steve Jobs announced sweet, sweet webapps as the original iPhone 2G SDK back in 2007 he was met -- rightfully so -- with the jeers and condemnation of the developer community. Now it's 2010 and mobile apps have proven so successful that web browsing is actually down on iOS. People like using apps better than the web on mobile because internet-enabled apps currently work better than the web browser on mobile devices.

Destiny dependent

Second, RIM is using Adobe's AIR as stop-gap SDK and Flash as a presentation layer. While that's great news for Flash developers because it allows for the mythical "code once, run anywhere" travesty that's tortured users for over a decade, it's the same trap RIM was was in with Java2ME on BlackBerry OS. It's an intermediary, code-intepreting layer based on outdated, historically poorly performing technology that RIM can't control. If AIR and Flash languish and fall far behind the curve, as Adobe has let them do in the past, or if Adobe takes AIR and Flash in a direction that's at conflict with RIM and their users, what can RIM do? They're once again not masters of their own destiny, something Apple, Microsoft, Palm, and Google decidedly are.

Forgetting phones

Third, QNX and the AIR layers don't seem to be able to run on phones, which are RIM's core business. It demands too much processing power and consumes too much battery life to actually power the products RIM sells. In 2010. iOS has been powering iPhones well since 2007. Android, UI challenged as it was, worked fine on the 2008 G1. webOS did wonders with the Pre in 2009. Microsoft, who had their head in the sand (to put it politely) for years still managed to launch a new OS that ran on phones by 2010. That it took one or two years post-iPhone is understandable. That it took three is perplexing. That RIM will take four, maybe five is as flabbergasting as the PlayBook itself.

The BlackBerry inexperience

Fourth, given RIM doesn't have a native development environment of their own or a next-generation OS that can run on current generation phones, the tablet-style PlayBook might seem like a smart, place-holder play to keep the BlackBerry faithful, well, faithful.

Except the PlayBook is a BlackBerry in name only. As I mentioned at the beginning, BlackBerry, OS-challenged as it is, still leads the industry in enterprise push, messaging, and overall communications. Those are their core strengths and competencies. Say what you want about the BlackBerry OS user experience -- and I've said plenty, as have lots of BlackBerry lovers -- tens of millions of people use it everyday. And the PlayBook is nothing like it. The PlayBook, which RIM can only hope to sell to Enterprise and BlackBerry addicts, has a user experience completely alien to BlackBerry. It's interactivity is all Apple iPad and its UI metaphors are all taken from Palm's webOS.

Apple was criticized for not doing something more original with the iPad, of simply scaling up the iPhone. But that's exactly right and Apple said why at the introduction -- there were already tens of millions of users who knew how to use iPhone and would instantly know and feel comfortable using iPad.

How many BlackBerry users will instantly know PlayBook based on their BlackBerry use? BlackBerry users are BlackBerry users -- if they're still BlackBerry users -- because they don't want iPhones or Pres. They want BlackBerrys. If they wanted iOS they'd have already gotten iPads and if they want webOS they'll wait for a PalmPad.

PlayBooks sound like they're for play. BlackBerrys are known, trusted, and loved for work. Even the name shows the utter disconnect at the core of this device, and at the core of RIM.

Love is blind

Like Ballmer at Microsoft and Colligan at Palm, Lazaridis and Balsillie at RIM probably thought they were so entrenched, so far advanced, that no upstart like Apple (or Google) could challenge them. By the time they did start responding with their "Apple killer", the BlackBerry Storm in 2008, the negative reaction should have shown them that what they were doing wasn't and wouldn't work, that they needed to think different and leap ahead.

I've always thought Android and Windows Mobile suffered because the CEOs of Google and Microsoft didn't care about them. They're just another screen that needs to be owned. Steve Jobs loves the iPhone. Jon Rubenstein went to Palm to make the Pre. Lazaridis and Balsillie obviously love the BlackBerry (maybe even more than Kevin). But the love that can launch and platform can also blind a company to the platform's decline. Founders have a tough time recognizing when change is needed. Witness the BlackBerry Torch.

It's taken RIM over three years to recognize the trouble they're in and since they wasted so much time they've now become desperate not to waste any more. That's why Balsillie is firing away at Apple and that's why Lazardis came off so poorly when interviewed by Mossberg and Swisher at the Dive into Mobile conference. Unable to show off anything but the PlayBook prototype, unable to concede the failure of the Torch and risk the Osborn effect on existing BlackBerry OS devices, and unable to tell a story about smartphones that can't be told until next year at the earliest, he'd have been better off not doing the interview at all.

Why is RIM running away from BlackBerry to battle Apple?

RIM doesn't have Windows and Office, or online advertising to keep them afloat while they (re)invent their smartphones. They're like Apple when Jobs came back or Palm when Rubenstein came in, only it's not then it's now and the space is accelerating faster and the climate is more competitive than ever before.

That's why RIM has to make so many compromises, playing the HTML5 card, getting in bed with Adobe, going with a tablet instead of a phone, and creating an alien experience, and why they've had to run away from the Blackberry to battle Apple -- because today's BlackBerry has proven can't battle Apple and tomorrow's BlackBerry is still way more than a day way.

They waited too long and now they've bet on the PlayBook to to keep them going until chips and batteries let them re-enter the smartphone game. It's a huge gamble and not one that's guaranteed to pay off .

One look at the games being released for this season and it's easy to think we're entering into the next great generation of iPhone (and iPad) gaming. Infinity Blade has brought Epic's Unreal 3 Engine to iOS in grand fashion, with spectacular, real-time environments, fun gameplay, and character models and motion that would have blown me away on a PS2, let alone a handheld device that also surfs the web and makes phone calls. In a day or so we'll also get Real Racing 2, sequel to Firemint's Apple Design Award Winning driver, complete with 30 licensed, gorgeously reproduced cars and highly anticipated multiplayer online gaming.

These are features that, until now, were reserved for PC and console games. They're premium titles, the kind that take the time and effort of small scale motion pictures to make. They're what's putting a hurt on Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS business, never mind other smartphones. And they're on our iPhone, with more and more to come.

In a market where other platforms are now achieving 3rd party software parity with Apple -- they have enough of the kind of applications people want on their mobile devices that tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands are quantitative but no longer qualitative differentiators -- and raw hardware specs that equal and may soon eclipse iPhone 4, these kinds of games could be the iPhone's killer apps and Apple's next short term differentiator.

The first series of iPhone 2G ads were features -- the internet in your pocket, music on your phone. The next series of iPhone 3G were centered around "app for that" with every commercial showing off first the apps themselves and later, with iPhone 3GS, what you could do with them. Then the Android Market gained critical mass and with iPhone 4 Apple returned to feature marketing -- FaceTime, Retina Display, and battery life (along with a healthy dose of Kodak-style emotion thrown in). But there are already front-facing cameras on competing devices, along with a couple Retina-class displays, and battery life will no doubt catch up as well. Whether or not other platforms get software and user experience to match iPhone 4 is a different question, but the feature checklist will make the advertising moot. Apple's update cycle means they won't have a new iOS to show off until March or April's preview event, new iPad hardware until April, and iPhone 5 until June. But they'll have these games.

Market share numbers remain dubious metrics. We often see how many OS-running devices competitors sell compared to how many iPhone AT&T sells. It's hardly news that all other devices combined outsell the iPhone but here's the thing -- Apple still sells a ton of iPhones, 14+ million last quarter and that was the quarter before the traditionally strongest holiday buying season. Apple sold so many iPhones in fact that even Verizon may have conceded ground to line it up for next year. Add to that all the iPod touches sold, and iPads that can run iPhone apps (albeit in fuzzy double chunky mode) and it makes a realistic install base approaching a hundred million mostly compatible devices. (Apple has sold well over 125 million iOS devices but the number still in active use, and able to run modern games is no doubt significantly lower.)

Sure there's some legacy issues as older devices don't have cameras or GPS or the RAM and chipset power needed to run current generation games, and some fragmentation between iPhone and iPad, but it's nothing compared to other platforms and even discounting older devices the install base is huge. (That's not a debate, developers will tell you that especially when it comes to apps that need to be as carefully coded and optimized as premium games.)

The biggest evidence to support the size of iOS' install base, the quality and consistency of Apple's hardware, and the power of their SDK is that we're seeing games like Infinity Blade and Real Racing 2 on iPhone and... nowhere else. Not yet and probably not for a while. (I still think one look at Unreal Engine 3 for iOS as much as any government antitrust action got Apple to change its mind about cross-compilers and quick).

Talking to developers, they're happy enough to take on the small challenges of porting their casual games to other mobile platforms as things like Android's install base and Palm's easy-peasy PDK make it attractive. Gameloft has almost made a science out of packing their apps for multiple platforms. But console quality, premium games? Those are iPhone only. For now.

As things like Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the accompanying PlayStation Phone app with enhancements and content specifically for gaming get wider penetration, as Microsoft fields Windows Phone with its Apple-like platform control and Xbox Live integration, as RIM flirts with a next-generation OS for the BlackBerry PlayBook, and as Palm gets its post-HP acquisition act together, a lot of things could change and we could see a far more mature, more competitive gaming market.

But if and when it does, it probably won't be before Apple has iOS 5, iPad 2, and iPhone 5 ready to one-two-three combo 2011, and new set of features to tout in their ads.

Until then, next generation games are all but exclusive to iPhone and for the next few months, that's the killer app.

iPhone has decimated Verizon's growth, Google is uncertain ally, and Android is simply not competitive with iPhone to the degree Verizon may have had to give in to Apple's demands in order to launch a Verizon iPhone is 2011. That according to Horace Dediu of asymco who breaks down the numbers Matthew Goodman, a research analyst at ITG Investment, claims may represent Verizon's monthly sales figures by device.

If the data is accurate (big if), Dediu says RIM's BlackBerry and Palm's webOS fell considerably and Android manufacturers hit a wall in August following the wide spread availability of iPhone 4.

I wrote this up as a lack of competitiveness. It may seem provocative, but I define competitiveness narrowly: the competition is for a purchase decision on equal terms. These purchase decisions are fiendishly complex to predict, but the data speaks: whether it’s due to brand, visibility or performance and in spite of “antennagate” the iPhone is cleaning up.

While Android didn't rescue Verizon, it did put them in bed with Google, a capricious evil compared to Apple's more predictable evil, currently in service of AT&T. That's why the same August period might also explain the uptick in iPhone on Verizon rumors. What of BlackBerry, Android, et. al when (if) Verizon turns to iPhone?

BlackBerry and Droid have been reliant on Verizon's promotion, not as much RIM or Motorola/HTC generated marketing. If those marketing dollars shift to iPhone and if Verizon's customers shift to iPhone, what does that do for the competitive market?

my conclusion remains that iPhone will find at least 8 million new users with Verizon. The analysis above give me confidence to increase the upper bound to possibly 12 million.

[aymco via @Lessien]

According to the latest data from The Nielsen Company, Apple's iOS for iPhone and RIM's BBOS for BlackBerry are neck-and-neck for total U.S. smartphone operating system market share sitting at 27 percent each. Android OS, which powered a bunch of phones from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and others, is hot on their heels now sitting at 22 percent of total U.S. Market share.

Among users planning to get a new smartphone, current smartphone owners showed a preference for the Apple iPhone (35 percent), while 28 percent of both smartphone and featurephone planned smartphone upgraders indicated they wanted a device with an Android operating system as their next mobile phone.

Featurephone owners planning to get a smartphone are less likely to have made up their mind about the OS they will choose: 25 percent were “not sure” what their next desired OS might be compared to 13 percent of smartphone owners. Those over 55 were markedly less certain than younger mobile users, with 27.8 saying they weren’t sure what kind of device they wanted next, compared to 12.2 percent of those 18 to 24.

Apple’s iPhone and devices with the Android operating system were the “most desired” among likely smartphone upgraders, with Apple showing a slight lead among those age 55+ , 18 to 24, and 25 to 34.

Women planning to get a smartphone are more likely to want an iPhone as their next device, with slightly more males preferring Android.

We know if you're reading TiPb you probably like the iPhone but what's your opinion on the survey, do the results match what you're seeing with your friends and colleagues?

[ Nielsen via Engadget ]

The IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker claims that Apple's record Q3 this year was exactly what it needed to bypass RIM and take over the fourth spot on their list of global mobile phone vendors. Apple is currently still behind, Nokia, Samsung and LG according to a report from Business Wire. Apple has been a dominant force in mobile phones since the introduction of the original iPhone 3 years ago but has never been able to sneak into the top 5 list of global mobile phone vendors. Their arrival into the top 5 knocked out Sony Ericsson devices the first time since IDC started this survey back in 2004.

IDC senior research analyst had some interesting thoughts on this achievement by Apple:

The entrance of Apple to the top 5 vendor ranking underscores the increased importance of smartphones to the overall market. Moreover, the mobile phone makers that are delivering popular smartphone models are among the fastest growing firms.

Apple has clearly dominated in terms of growth year-over-year as well, shooting up just over 90% while the next closest competitor, RIM, grew just under 46%. Nokia and Samsung are still a considerable amount ahead of Apple as far as market share goes but LG is slowly declining which could allow for Apple to eventually slide into the number 3 position.

[ Market Watch ]

by Brian Tufo

Apple shipped 20% more iPhones than RIM shipped Blackberrys during Q3 2010, according to Strategy Analytics. PC World got a look at the report and says:

With the shipments, Apple grabbed a 15.4 percent share of the market during the period, while RIM finished well behind with a 12.3 percent share. Top dog in the kennel, though, remains Nokia with 26.5 percent of the worldwide market.

With Apple adding global distribution channels all of the time, not mention the increased chances we might see a Verizon iPhone next year, could we soon be looking at even better numbers coming out of Cupertino? Could they ever overtake Nokia, the current top-dog in the mobile space?

[Strategy Analytics via PC World]

by Andrew Wray

RIM's co-CEO, Jim Balsillie has also fired back at Steve Jobs, who said during Apple's Q4 2010 conference call that RIM would need to change into a software company to catch up to iPhone and iPad. Balsillie's statement:

"For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field, we know that 7" tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience. We also know that while Apple's attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash. We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple. And by the way, RIM has achieved record shipments for five consecutive quarters and recently shared guidance of 13.8 - 14.4 million BlackBerry smartphones for the current quarter. Apple's preference to compare its September-ending quarter with RIM's August-ending quarter doesn't tell the whole story because it doesn't take into account that industry demand in September is typically stronger than summer months, nor does it explain why Apple only shipped 8.4 million devices in its prior quarter and whether Apple's Q4 results were padded by unfulfilled Q3 customer demand and channel orders. As usual, whether the subject is antennas, Flash or shipments, there is more to the story and sooner or later, even people inside the distortion field will begin to resent being told half a story."

It's strong words that, like Kevin says, is fast becoming a real tech soap opera. However, it's odd that Balsillie hangs so much of RIM's hat on the tired old rack that is Adobe Flash, especially when they have the new QNX OS-based hotness in the pipeline.

Does Flash answer the challenge of becoming a software-driven company, especially considering Flash doesn't currently run on BlackBerry either, and won't until the PlayBook ships next year?

[CrackBerry.com]

Why did Steve Jobs show up on an Apple financial results call, something he's done in the past but doesn't typically do, and more importantly why did go all Samuel L. Jackson on RIM's BlackBerry and Google's Android, something not typically done on any results call? After all, there's an Apple event coming up on Wednesday where no doubt Jobs will be center stage, in front of almost the entire blogsphere and half the internet at large. Why not wait for then?

Because this was about mobile and about iOS, and about iOS' place in mobile, and Wednesday is purely Back to the Mac. The next iOS-centric event likely won't be until January 2011 for iPad 2 and by then the all-important holiday quarter will be over, RIM's BlackBerry Playbook will be closer to launch, a million more Android devices will be on the market, and Microsoft and Palm might be getting back into the game.

Right now, today, Apple posted unbelievable numbers -- 14.1 million iPhones sold and 4.1 million iPads -- they beat RIM's BlackBerry numbers this quarter and given the way Jobs was strutting, they likely beat the numbers of every Android device sold as well. This was Jobs on top of the mountain, seizing the high ground, and striking.

First he hit RIM, not just in the sales numbers but in the technology where it hurts. The Torch didn't ignite anybody and the PlayBook is little more than a video at this point, their next-generation QNX still a ways off. But he called them out as a hardware company, as people who piece together model after iterative model, not craft platforms. He shone a spotlight on their lack of developer support and high quality apps and he did it in a time when they're transitioning from the past to the future and can't show off anything in the present to refute him. Then he and Tim Cook touted iPhone and iPad enterprise adoption, just to kick RIM while they're down: it's not that BlackBerry isn't competitive, it's that they're not even competing.

Next was Google, whom Jobs acknowledged as Apple's chief mobile competition and the only other platform succeeding in the space. Those were about the only kind words he had for them, however, as he proceeded to cut into the heart of the argument Eric Schmidt has been foisting for months: the value of "openness".

Here Jobs conveniently conflated openness with decoupled hardware and software, and Apple's closed with integrated hardware and software. That let him liken Android to Windows and Microsoft's abandoned PlaysForSure DRM strategy. Neither good analogies. Where Jobs did hit home, however, is equating open to fragmented. That's the manifestation of the philosophy and as much weakness as strength -- you can get any device you want, but every device will therefor be different. With choice comes challenge. Jobs acknowledged some consumers might prefer that but staunchly and steadfastly repeated that he thinks Apple's business model is better -- their phones are consistent, they just work, and they don't require the end user to be a systems integrator.

Jobs spoke not only to the analysts on the call and the influencers who were following (and blogging) it, but to developers, citing TweetDeck as an example of an app that had to be coded for 100 different versions of Android running on 244 different devices, where iOS typically has 2 versions (current and one previous) and largely binary compatible devices. He also pointed out that while Android still struggles to sell apps, and Verizon, Vodafone, and Amazon look to fragment Android Market, Apple has a unified App Store with unified billing and customers that pay for apps.

Lastly was tablets. Of the few current and impending iPad competitors, many are using a smaller 7-inch screen and Jobs thinks they have no idea what they're doing. Clearly Apple has tested 7-inch iPads internally (and likely other sizes), and rumors of Apple releasing one keep popping up on the internet, but Jobs' couldn't have been plainer: 7-inch tablets are terrible.

Jobs maintains the screen size sounds almost as big as the iPad's 9.7-inch display but since those are diagonal measures actual real-estate is only 48% the size and Apple (meaning Jobs) doesn't think you can make great tablet software on a screen that size. Everyone who currently buys a tablet already has a smartphone for small scale mobile computing, Jobs says, and 7-inch screens don't allow for the software needed to make really great tablet apps. The UI elements are too small or too close or too few and far between. They're tweeners, too big for the pocket too small to really work.

And he thinks that due to Apple's incredible economies of scale -- essentially the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and now Apple TV share most of the same guts and Apple designs everything from chipsets to battery chemistry to enclosures themselves -- their competitors won't be able to match iPad's pricing. They'll provide half as much value at twice the cost, and next year they'll figure out post-release what Apple did pre-release, abandon their 7-inch tablets, and leave users and developers high and dry. That's extremism for absurdities sake, of course, but it creates the impression Apple is that far ahead of the curve.

The reason, which Jobs touched on several times, is that Apple is a software company in a hardware-centric industry. He even accused competitors of making the cheapest hardware they could and then crossing their fingers and hoping their after-thought software would fix it. Apple decides on the software they want and painstakingly crafts and integrates the hardware to support it. And then every year they iterate, improve, and offer more for the same price as less.

Because unlike Nokia -- and netbook makers based on prior statements -- Apple's not willing to make cheap products that suck.

All of this, taken together, let Jobs set the stage for the holiday season precisely how he wanted it set. Now journalists can use any of these loaded quotes to accompany everything they write about RIM, Google or Nokia, or Microsoft or Palm. Instead of effusing on openness they've been primed with fragmentation, instead of extolling 7-inch tablets they're thinking Apple tried and rejected that form factor as sub-standard, instead of promoting Android numbers they have 14.1 million iPhone 4 and 125 million iOS devices to add Apple-specific context with.

Developers flirting with the idea of diving into Android are left think again about the easy 70% from the App Store versus the picture Jobs painted of a broken, commercially unproven, wild-west market for Android where you rolls your dice and takes your chances whether they'll even fit on the table, or the struggling and still largely empty App World from RIM.

And by ignoring Microsoft and Palm, Jobs dismissed them as non-contenders right when they're about to come to market, or come back to market.

It was a masterful show from a master showman, showing just how critical the mobile space is to Apple going forward. (As if the Mac OS X vs. iOS numbers didn't make that plain enough).

Developer and consumer mindshare is what shape the mobile battlefield, and Jobs clearly stated Apple is in it to win it.

During Apple's Q4 2010 conference call today, surprise attendee Steve Jobs took it to RIM, their BlackBerry link, and upcoming PlayBook tablet saying they'll have to fundamentally re-invent themselves to catch up.

Highlights, paraphrased:

• Steve Jobs! (SJ): 14.1 million iPhones represents 91% growth. Handily beat RIM's 12.1 million BlackBerry's sold in most recent quarter. Past RIM, doesn't see them catching up. They must become a software platform company. A challenge for them. A high mountain to climb.

When it comes to their PlayBook tablet, he lumped them in with criticism for smaller screened Android Tablets as well:

• SJ: Other tables appear to be just a handful of credible entrants. Almost all use 7" screens compared to iPad 10". Would offer 70% of benefits. But only 45% as large because of diagonal measure. 7" screens a bit smaller than bottom half of iPad screen. Not big enough to make great tablet apps.
• SJ: Apple has done extensive testing, really understand this stuff. Limits to how close you can place elements for usability. Why 10" is minimum size for great tablet apps.
• SJ: Every tablet user is also smartphone user. No tablet can fit in your pocket. Giving up precious diplay area to fit tablets in pockets isn't the way to go. Tweeners.
• SJ: iPad now has more than 35,000 apps. New tablets will have 0.
• SJ: Competitors have a tough time coming close to iPad pricing even with smaller screen. Apple creates own chip, battery chemistry, enclosure, everything. Incredible product, incredible price. Competitors will likely offer less for more.
• SJ: New crop of tablets will likely be DOA. Too small. Will increase size next year, abandon customers and developers who went 7-inch.

That's some tough talk for the entrenched enterprise champion, with an incredibly passionate install base wrapped up in BES and BBM. Is QNX the reboot he's talking about, or is the Torch and Style a sign it's not coming fast enough?

Angry Birds, the hit iPhone game that's spread to Android, webOS, and Symbian is finally coming to BlackBerry.

Who says iPhone competitors aren't competitive in gaming? Screenshot after the break.

[via @joshuatopolsky]

iPhone is being tested at JP Morgan and other large enterprises as an alternative to RIM's BlackBerry, Bloomberg reports. They have 220,000 employees. UBS AG with 63,000 employees is doing likewise and Standard Chartered Bank will have 15,000 iPhones distributed by end of year.

Cost savings and employee preference were the two biggest factors cited by companies for the shift in the Sanford Bernstein survey. Employees would rather own an iPhone and are increasingly willing to buy the device themselves, which helps cuts costs as companies look to rein in spending, said Sanford Bernstein’s Ferragu.

Wells Fargo previously switched to iPhone and iPad. Enterprise is a momentum game and it looks like that momentum is changing.

Are you using iPhone in your enterprise?

[Bloomberg]

CrackBerry Kevin decided to put the brand new BlackBerry Torch 9800's brand new BlackBerry OS 6 WebKit browser up against iPhone 4's iOS 4 Safari and Captivate's Android 2.1 Chrome in a good, old-fashioned browser battle royal.

The results? Win, lose, or draw, RIM has certainly come a long way when it comes to browsers. See the video above and CrackBerry.com's play-by-play for more. Let us know your thoughts below.

Kevin has done his usual monstrous job of reviewing RIM's new BlackBerry Torch 9800 and BlackBerry OS 6. It almost seems hard to remember but before Android came around almost every competitive article here on TiPb was BlackBerry focused, and with the Torch 9800 RIM is hoping to regain that mindshare. Will they succeed? It's $199 and exclusive to AT&T -- familiar ground to US iPhone users. Then they took the best-in-class BlackBerry Bold 9700 keyboard and melded it with the, well, not-so-classy Storm touchscreen, absent SurePress, and gave it a Palm Pre-style slider. Is it the best of all worlds, sum better than the parts?

We'll have to see. The specs don't impress but RIM's genius has always been battery and push messaging, not duking it out with the Apple's and Android's of the world on hardware. Is BlackBerry OS 6 then enough to keep the BlackBerry faithful happy? To bring those who have strayed back to the fold? To convert iPhone 4 users? Check out CrackBerry.com's review then come back here and let us know your thoughts...

Co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have released an official response from RIM to Apple's iPhone 4 press conference yesterday and Steve Jobs' demonstration of a BlackBerry Bold 9700 suffering from similar signal-drop when death-gripped:

"Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM's customers don't need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple."

CrackBerry Kevin ran a death-grip poll on CrackBerry.com and as of this writing 14% had the death-grip, 72% did not, and 14% saw bars drop but come back.

When you factor in that we don't know how RIM calculates bars, what dropping and coming back up means, and add the crucial crazy that makes iPhone 4 antenna issues so maddening -- that not everyone has them, and the whole situation has snowballed into equal parts fact and frenzy,

Steve Jobs might have done better mentioning the industry-wide death-grip problem as a bullet point and saving the videos for the Q&A if he got called on it because there was every chance it could come back to bite him in the a$. Likewise, RIM might have been better off not making a public statement, going with humor, and letting the public weigh in for a while because this can now come back and bite them in their own co-a$es. Why?

Same reason Steve Jobs' should never have sent that "hold different, get a case" email response. RIM has now cued everyone in a weak signal with a BlackBerry to rev up their YouTube engines and start asking for free cases. TiPb's already getting email:

I reported last week to [that] I could do just what Apple said in their news conference today, it was nothing against Blackberry. I own a Bold 9700 and a iphone 4 and my statement was it was no big deal. This is my third Blackberry and third iPhone. For you to say you have avoided the problem is in fact a misstatement. Your phone does the same thing without a case on it that the iPhone does and it does no harm to either phone.

Now for the big question Since my Bold 9700 does what the iPhone does are you going to fix my phone because it must be defective.

Thank You, Dwight

TiPb's own Alli Kazmucha, who's in a weak signal area, has been able to reproduce the BlackBerry Bold 9700 death-grip as well:

I managed to replicate [the death-grip] on a 9700 in less than 15 seconds, and on a 3GS.

We have bad coverage around a certain area in town, and like Apple said, in poor coverage areas it can be replicated. People forget that key point.

I've replicated it on my iPhone 3GS as well.

Nokia and RIM have both chosen to respond. We'll see if Samsung does as well, and if HTC and Motorola decide to get into "antennagate" as well. One thing's for certain, Phil Nickinson from Android Central is right when he says any new phone that gets released from any company now is going to be under increased -- and in some cases ridiculous -- antenna scrutiny.

Good.

Video after the break.

Update: Boy Genius shows the BlackBerry 9650 on Verizon dropping to one bar when death-gripped in the second video after the break...

[CrackBerry.com]

iPhone 4 with its 960x640 retina display, easy-peasy FaceTime video calling, high quality 5 megapixel, back-illuminated camera that shoots 720p 30fps video, and the silky smoothness of iOS 4 convincing you to switch from RIM's BlackBerry to Apple's newest handset? Worried about moving over your personal data like contacts, finding apps, getting used to the differences? Wondering where to get help?

Stop. Smile. We're here to help. Follow along after the break for everything you need to know (more properly, everything the iPhone Forums have taught us) about switching from BlackBerry to iPhone 4 and iOS 4.

(And yes, we've done Android, webOSWindows Mobile switcher guides as well).

RIM to iPhone - Yin and Yang

Perhaps you've used an iPhone before but work or hard core messaging needs demanded you back on the BlackBerry? Perhaps the missing mail and multitasking kept you from trying an iPhone at all until now? It's all good. The past is the past and this is about the future -- your future with iPhone 4 and iOS 4. This is about getting you from BlackBerry to iPhone as fast as possible.

And here's the good news -- of all the smartphone platforms, no two complement each other more than BlackBerry and iPhone. Ultimate communicator to paramount web and app platform. So even if you're not really switching but just lining up a little iPhone action on the side -- we got you covered. Dual wielders most definitely welcome.

Moving over contacts, calendars, and email

If you're on an Exchange server at work, you can just plug your credentials into iPhone and ActiveSync will do the rest. No BES required. That is if IT allows it -- they can get super-controlling with all the super-functionality BES provides. If they won't let you give up the Berry, you can still sneak the iPhone in on your own time. (And if you have or can get the direct Exchange info, you can probably still access your data on the down low).

For personal email, Gmail (and Hotmail soon as well) can also be added via ActiveSync. iOS 4 supports multiple ActiveSync accounts. Just tap the Settings icon on the Home Screen, tap Mail, Contacts, and Calendars, choose Exchange, and enter your info.

If you don't like ActiveSynch, you can setup MobileMe (Apple's expensive push service), Exchange, or pretty much any POP3 or IMAP service you have via the Other button.

Since the iPhone already has a WebKit browser -- the leading WebKit browser -- you can load up gmail.com and most other web mail sites right in Safari.

What to do about BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)

Ah, there's the lock-in. RIM operates their own, industry leading, completely proprietary messaging service and since there's not much chance they'll announced BlackBerry Connect for iPhone any time soon, leaving BlackBerry means leaving BBM.

Don't panic! (Crash cart ready!. It's for the best, really. Communication protocols shouldn't be proprietary and if they are (like Twitter) they should at least be supported on every platform -- especially the web. That way you can log out of one machine and in to another and all your stuff is just there. Like email. Like IM. Like Twitter. Like pretty much everything popular aside from BBM.

You're moving on and if your friends are real friends, they'll move with you. (Ha, sorry, couldn't resist!).

Now there are iPhone apps that try to mimic the BBM experience, even cross-platform, but we're not going to recommend them because they tend to be just as proprietary as Twitter without the mass adoption... so just use Twitter. Or AIM. Or Windows Live Messenger. There are tons of great iPhone app clients for all of those. Here are the official -- and free -- Twitter [iTunes link], AIM [iTunes link], and WLM [iTunes link] clients for iPhone. You can find several premium, multi-protocol apps as well, including BeeJive [iTunes link] and IM+ [iTunes link]

Finding other apps (and games).

Truth time -- Apple doesn't have a creaky old J2ME operating system awkwardly opening APIs and offering fractured support for technologies like WebKit and OpenGL. (They save partial support for messaging and multitasking! Zing!)

Okay, so Apple may not have invented mobile apps but they've revolutionized them sure as BlackBerry revolutionized mobile communications. What this means to you is 225,000 apps ready and waiting, and surprisingly most have nothing to do with farts. You'll find cutting edge productivity, amazing entertainment, top of the line social networking, and scores and scores of other amazing apps. And sorry Brick Breaker, but the iPhone also owns (and pwns) on games, from the casual farmers to full-on 3D shooters. TiPb reviews several a week and we've got a whole iPhone Apps and Games Forum ready to help you out as well.

Jailbreak

Jailbreak and Cydia are two words you might here come up around these parts. Okay, iPhone 4 probably won't be Jailbroken (root jail broken open to allow side-loading of unsigned apps -- if you don't know what that means, skip this section) on launch day but it probably will eventually, maybe even soon. If you're a diehard tweaker and customizer, you'll want to keep your eyes peeled to our Jailbreak coverage, and more importantly -- our Jailbreak Help Forum, and Jailbreak Apps, Games, and Themes Forum.

Say farewell to fracture

Seriously, you don't have to worry much if at all about versions and hardware compatibility any more. With very few exception, iPhone apps past, present, and future will just work on your iPhone 4. Sure the screen is bigger but it's exactly 4 times bigger at the same physical size so existing (pre-iOS 4) apps will look the same and new (post iOS 4) apps will, frankly, blow your eyeballs out the back of your head.

There's no Pearl vs Curve vs Storm vs Bold, keyboard vs no keyboard, flip vs no flip, SureType vs SurePress vs full QWERTY.

Apple is all about user experience and they're doing a lot of abstraction behind the scenes to make sure things look great in front of them.

Say hello to iTunes

A mixed blessing if ever there was one, iTunes runs okay on Mac, kludgy on Windows, but is the local sync client required to activate your iPhone 4 and to transfer large media and document files from your computer to your phone. But why are we telling you this, you've probably used BlackBerry's desktop app, maybe even Outlook. You know how to handle pain.

You can do a lot of things OTA (over the air), including syncing all your personal data via ActiveSync (including Google Sync) or MobileMe, download apps, and buy or rent iTunes music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. (20MB or under over 3G, any size over Wi-Fi). You can find apps that let you access your Google Docs, DropBox, Box.net, and other online storage. You can even convert and stream content on the fly with apps like AirSharing [iTunes]. But at some point, be it to install a software update like iOS 4.1 (probably due this fall) or backup your data, you're going to need to plug in to iTunes. So 2007, we know. If it's any consolation, Apple should release iTunes.com at some point...

Say WTH to weak, interruptive notifications

For all the huge usability advantages iOS 4 has over BlackBerry -- and make no mistake they really are huge -- notifications are sorely lacking.

You get one notification popup at a time that you have to view or close before you can resume what you were doing (or about to do) and once you close it -- or another notification pops up on top of it -- it's gone forever.

There's also no notification light -- not even a big glowing Apple logo. Nothing.

Hopefully Apple will fix these omissions in a future update. (Because we know RIM's getting a better browser.)

No. More. Keyboard. Or. Stylus.

No front facing QWERTY, no SureType. No physical hardware keyboards of any kind. Apple hates buttons and keyboards are nothing if not homes for dozens of buttons. If you're coming from a Storm this won't be as big a deal. If you're coming from the Bold...

Okay, here's the thing. Apple prefers the flexibility of a virtual keyboard, and they do flexible keyboards better than anyone in the business. Seriously. Despite what Big Mike says, multitouch capacitive interface of any kind on glass can be a transformative experience.

Apple likes their keys virtual so they go away when you don't need them (without creaking, oreo'ing, popping batteries, or coming to the rescue when virtual keyboards just won't do). On the plus side, if you're multilingual or international, the iPhone keyboard can easily be switched to any alphabet, script, stroke, or pictographic symbol you want to use. It can also become optimized for numbers, games, or pretty much anything you (technically, a developer) can think of.

Best of all, if you really miss your physical keyboard, with iOS 4, you can tether up a Bluetooth one and knock email -- and yourself -- out.

More BlackBerry to iPhone help and information

If you haven't already, check out our complete iOS 4 feature walkthrough. There's an incredible amount of stuff in iOS 4 and you can save yourself some serious time cribbing off of us.

If you need help, or have a story to share, check out TiPb's iPhone forum -- we've got a special switching from BlackBerry to iPhone 4 thread going just for you!

And if we forgot anything or just plain got something wrong, let us know and we'll add it or fix it.

AT&T's new $15/200MB, $25/2GB tiered, data-capped pricing plans are a huge change for the US mobile industry, and something BlackBerry maker RIM thinks will drive consumers away from high-bandwidth, open internet devices like iPhone and Android and towards low-bandwidth, proxied devices like BlackBerry. Our good buddy CrackBerry Kevin sums it up this "happy day for RIM" as follows:

Effectively, BlackBerry users have been subsidizing iPhone users bandwidth demands over the past few years. Now finally, with a dataplan like this, RIM can start to really boast and market the benefits of BlackBerry efficiency. Previously, the "looming data crunch" argument seemed a bit like an excuse for RIM to cover up some of the areas where it was lagging behind the competition. But with RIM fixing up it's gaps, for example with the new WebKit browser which will be fast AND use 3x less data than the competition for rendering the same page as we were told by AT&T Mobility's President and CEO back at CTIA 2010, RIM will be able to deliver customers with a great all around smartphone user experience that costs less to use on a monthly basis as compared to some of the more data heavy devices. The "average" BlackBerry user (which may not be you if you're reading CrackBerry on a daily basis!) should be able to get away with AT&T's $15/mo. plan.

Personally, as much as I think the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the ultimate messaging device, my carrier (Rogers) has always had tiered pricing and I choose to pay $30/m for 6GB on an iPhone instead of saving some cash by getting less data and a BlackBerry. For me it's not about cost but about value. I personally find more value in what I can do with more data on an iPhone.

But what do you think? Is price -- or total cost of ownership (TCO) -- enough to make BlackBerrys a more compelling deal for consumers than iPhones under this new data reality? (Assuming all US carriers switch to this model, sooner, later, or when 4G is universal).

How about new users and first time smartphone users? Are they more likely to go BlackBerry now than iPhone?

With Apple all but certain to announce a the 4th generation iPhone (iPhone HD/iPhone 4G) with iPhone OS 4 at WWDC the week of June 7, and AT&T to release it later the same month, why would AT&T want to release the new BlackBerry 9800 slider running OS 6.0 at around the same time?

Since 2007 the iPhone has been AT&T's summer blockbuster. It's been the phone that got the users and made the numbers, quarter after quarter. Some would go so far as to say iPhone exclusivity is the only thing that's kept AT&T competitive with their arch-rival, Verizon.

Rewind. Back in March our sibling site CrackBerry.com did a Q&A roundup about the BlackBerry Slider, which could end up being part of the Bold lineup. A full, capacitive touchscreen device with a Palm Pre-style vertical slider it would give the BlackBerry faithful the Storm-like experience needed to compete in today's mainstream smartphone market, but keep the industry-leading physical keyboard those same faithful are so loathe to do without. And CrackBerry thought it was going to be released on AT&T, and in the summer.

Today Boy Genius added fuel to that fire, saying the BlackBerry Bold 9800 slider would launch on AT&T in June, be exclusive for 3-6 months, and that AT&T had placed an incredibly large order for the device -- easily exceeding 1,000,000 units.

Repeat. Why would AT&T want a huge order of an exclusive, powerfully branded, touchscreen smartphone with keyboard differentiation at the same time they've traditionally, and successfully launched their heretofore exclusive new iPhones?

Since I've sworn off Verizon iPhone rumors this week, including rumors of Verizon iPhone ads, manufacturers and equally large manufacturing runs, and increasing chatter, I'll let you answer that in comments.

According to NPD, more smartphones were sold in the US that run Android than smartphones than run iPhone OS in Q1 2010. BlackBerry remains in the number one spot. According to NPD. Apple isn't a fan of the metrics being used:

“This is a very limited report on 150,000 US consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide,” Apple spokesperson Natalie Harrison, told The Loop. “IDC figures show that iPhone has 16.1 percent of the smartphone market and growing, far outselling Android on a worldwide basis. We had a record quarter with iPhone sales growing by 131 percent and with our new iPhone OS 4.0 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

Since Android can be found in a variety of form factors on all four US carriers, and since Verizon offers it as part of their BOGO (buy one, get one free) promotions, just like the BlackBerry, even if the NPD numbers hold up they're not surprising.

That the iPhone's market share is so high in the US, given they're on one carrier with one form factor, is actually more surprising -- only that it happens so often now we've stopped being surprised, especially after Apple's last financial results statement.

And yes, we're tired of beating that old horse as much as you're tired of watching it get beaten, but Apple cares only about market share as much as it amplifies profit share. Google isn't making direct money off of Android (though they do off monetizing services like search, which they also monetize on the iPhone) and on the low-margin, BOGO devices that give BlackBerry its lead, they're not making Apple-sized margins either (they likely do better on Bold-class devices).

Needless to say, Apple's not letting AT&T do BOGO for iPhone. For Apple, the iPhone is a premium product and they'd much rather maintain their huge lead in profit share than line discount bins for the sake of per-unit OS market share.

[Android Central, the Loop]

RIM has just unveiled BlackBerry 6 (yes, single digit just like iPhone OS 4), their latest, greatest mobile operating system and they've got the Blackeyed Peas-strewn video highlight reel to prove it!

As always, our confederates from CrackBerry.com are all over the WES2010 launch event and bring us back all the BlackBerry 6 highlights:

• Touchscreen friendly: The preview video makes it clear that BlackBerry 6 will be much more touchscreen friendly than what we have seen in the past from RIM, with new gestures, multitouch support and improved feedback for the user (kinetic scrolling, rubber banding). We've also heard that BlackBerry 6 will work well with non-touchscreen input as well and it looks like it should suit the optical trackpad.

• Revamped UI and OS/Homescreen Experience: At first quick glance during the video BlackBerry 6 looks familiar, but then all of the new and improved features start to jump out at you... Search from Homescreen, a pull down for notifications (sweet!), pop-up contextual menus, etc.

• Revamped Native Apps: It's clear that RIM has put a lot of effort into key native apps as well. The inbox and contacts and media apps are all getting updates, and they're looking good.

• WebKit Browser/Rendering Engine: RIM's new WebKit rendering engine is going to really speed up the web browsing experience while keeping it efficient. The browser gets much-needed features like tabbed browsing.

To us it looks like they've taken the solid BlackBerry messaging experience and tried to expand it with iPhone like music, video, and app abilities. In other words, they're making a serious play for Apple's market. Some of this stuff looks like Apple's 2007 iPhone OS 1 demo of the iPod and Safari app's -- and that's not a critique, Apple still hasn't demoed any messaging equivalent to any BlackBerry from any era. If BlackBerry catches up with web and media, where's Apple on messaging? (Mobile iChat video perhaps?)

There are still problems to be sure; BlackBerry 6 doesn't address their OS' increasingly outdated code base and the new app focus doesn't fix the anemic storage limitations -- but those problems don't yet affect the average user and so really don't exist outside bullet points and blogs.

Apple has revealed most of iPhone OS 4 (see our complete preview and feature walkthrough) and now RIM has show off BlackBerry 6.

Check out the boom, boom pow after the break and let us know what you think, should Apple be worried?

[CrackBerry.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlO8KMv7Bx4

TiPb nation, our noble champion, iPhone 3GS is locked in battle with the pushy little BlackBerry Tour in Laptop Magazine's Smartphone Madness tournament.

This is not a drill. iPhone needs you. Get over there and fight for everything magical and revolutionary, for everything great and GUI, for childlike sense of wonder and the glory of unharshened mellow.

TiPb nation: BlackBerry. Cannot. Win.

Cry havoc and let tap the apps of war!

Anyone surprised that games are way more popular on the iPhone than on competing plaforms? Mplayit has put out some interesting stats, not only on what apps are popular with their Facebook sharing users, but what kinds of apps are popular on the various platforms they monitor. While on Android and BlackBerry, non-game apps account for 83% and 67% of popular titles, on the iPhone they're only 36%. That leaves 64% for games.

That might be a concern, frankly, if the numbers weren't north of 150,000 leaving plenty of room for great productivity, utility, social networking, and other apps in addition to the increasingly good games. Embarrassment of riches indeed.

Check out the graphic above for the full breakdown. Time for Android and BlackBerry to get their game on, or does Apple really enjoy the lead Steve Jobs keeps saying they do?

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

Join Rene and Kevin Michaluk of CrackBerry.com for Round Robin BlackBerry Bold2 and Storm2 vs. iPhone, mega iTablet, iPhone HD, and iPhone 4.0 rumors, and all the week's news and opinions. Listen in!

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You -- iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

Apple Insider reports that, based on a Piper Jaffray survey:

12% of consumers who visited a retail store this past weekend to make their iPhone 3G S purchase said they were replacing a BlackBerry handset, the latest sign that Apple continues to make headway against rival Research in Motion in the high-stakes smartphone market.

28% of iPhone 3GS said buh-bye to their old carriers and hello to AT&T as well, proving once again just how valuable the iPhone is to new customer acquisition...

We're not surprised. Obviously. Apple plays the product cycle and media hype engines to perfection. Still, it's interesting to see Electronista's take, based on ChangeWave data:

A mid-June study from the research group has 14.4 percent of those tracked looking to buy some kind of smartphone within the next 90 days, a record high and a large jump from 11.2 percent in March. Of these, a full 44 percent now plan to buy an iPhone compared to 30 percent just three months earlier.

As the above graph shows, Palm went from 4% to 8%, BlackBerry from 37% to 23%. Android, Nokia, and Windows Mobile weren't shown

Other device makers likely know this, explaining why we're seeing so many iPhone-style devices hitting the market. TiPb still thinks it's more than a set of features, however. Sure, iPod halo and Apple brand help, but in the end the iPhone is all about usability and user experience for the consumer market, and that's not as easy a task to duplicate.

While the iPhone vs. Palm Pre is the current darling of the blogerati (we're not sure anyone in the mainstream is even aware of it...), we can't forget that most iconic of rivalries: iPhone vs. BlackBerry. Not when Infoworld has written up the provocatively titled: "Deathmatch: BlackBerry versus iPhone -- It’s time for us to bury the BlackBerry and move on to modern mobile -- even for e-mail".

In the massive, 8-page-jump article, the author contends that while the BlackBerry still scores points for security, non-Exchange email, hardware keyboard, and lack of good web browsing (for bosses who don't want their employees using WebApps), the summation states:

For everyone else, the BlackBerry is yesterday's mobile messenger, way past its prime and heading toward retirement. The iPhone is light-years ahead of the BlackBerry on almost every count. RIM should be ashamed.

Ouch. We're sure our friends over at CrackBerry.com would beg to differ, but... ouch.

Can RIM fight back with new devices like the BlackBerry Tour and impending Storm 2, or -- like Palm with the Pre and Microsoft with Windows Mobile 7 -- will RIM have to "spend time in the desert" and come out with a rebuilt, revamped, new BlackBerry OS for the next wave of mobile computers?

[Thanks to Matt and everyone who sent this in!]

Yes, it's true. Just like CrackBerry's reporting. According to NPD (via Engadget), the oldest remaining version of the BlackBerry Curve, when heavily discounted and given away in two-for-one promo deals, briefly regained the #1 best seller position on the smartphone index from the iPhone 3G, which had to settle for a high-margin #2. Also, discounted and given away two-for-one, when combined with heavy marketing and the power and reach of the Verizon network... did not. BlackBerry Storm was #3.

Cutting margins and giving away product may pad the numbers, but as Palm found out with the Centro, you can't make "zero" up on volume.

It's WWDC 2009. Steve or Phil or Scott or Joz or whomever is handling the heavy lifting for the iPhone 3.0 section and release-date announcement smiles and says -- "There's one more thing...

"Last year we showed you Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support. Nobody expected it, but we were blown away by the reception. This year, we're announcing BlackBerry Connect support for the iPhone. With this, not only can you chat with your team over BlackBerry Messenger, but you can push data right from your Corporate BES. And to tell us more about it, ladies and gentlemen, here's CrackBerry Kevin the Co-CEO of Research in Motion--"

Sounds crazy, doesn't it? It does to me. I know it does to Kevin. No way in Hull (it's in Ontario -- look it up!) this happens, right? It's not like Apple would ever do business with a competitor such as RIM... or Microsoft... or Google...

Would Apple even want BlackBerry Connect -- a software layer that emulates varying amounts of BlackBerry functionality on other devices like Symbian, Palm, or Windows Mobile -- on the iPhone? They've certainly got some degree of business integration now with the aforementioned Microsoft ActiveSync. And from RIM's side, while they have licensed BlackBerry Connect in the past, it's not like they've been putting any emphasis on it in the present, have they?

Aside from letting iPhone users instachat more seamlessly with BlackBerry users -- dogs and cats living together, as Dieter would say -- is there anything really in it for consumers either? It wouldn't give the iPhone a keyboard or the BlackBerry the ability to run more than a handful of tiny, on-memory apps. And, instead of breaking down more proprietary communication protocols, it would just be extending PIN the way it's already extended ActiveSync.

Still, crazier things have happened. What if this did? Would you want it?

Yesterday CrackBerry Kevin had a little funny at TiPb's expense with their "Confessions" post of a Ruby Park strip. Fine. Two can play at that game. Above, via PvPonline, is the new official response to anyone bringing a BlackBerry into a "just works" place. B'okay?

Remember that rejected -- and highly physically impossible -- video a few weeks back that CrackBerry.com was preening over? The one where a BlackBerry "bullet" tore through what was obviously a fake, tranquilized, like Waterloo fabricated Apple in a bizarre attempt to make the BlackBerry Storm less... Apple pwnd?

Well, now someone has found the real video, and likely the reason RIM never launched the fake one (Oliver Stone would have found it and humiliated them, 'natch) and we bring it to you in full embedded glory above.

APPLE SMASH? Indeed.

Zara from M0bileChic sent in this video, comparing the Apple iPhone against the BlackBerry Storm and Google Android G1. It's fun, it's fair, and we can't let the CrackBerry.com commenters get the last word in so let her -- and us -- know what you think.

And if you're hungry for more smartphone vs. smartphone action, check out our last Smartphone Experts Round Robin, where we looked not only at our own iPhone 3G and the Android G1, but the BlackBerry Bold, Palm Treo Pro, and HTC Fuze.

We can just feel CrackBerry.com's Kevin preening over news: Biggest. Jump. Since. Mayer.

Yep, U2 has left the warm embrace of Apple (though Product Red iPods no doubt remain) for the harsh corporate sponsorship of RIM. Of course, they flirted briefly with Dell first, and Bono's Elevation Partners are huge backers of Palm -- though according to PreCentral.net they likely needed to spend their cash on far more serious things, like bringing the Pre to market... Still:

"This tour announcement marks the first stage of a relationship and shared vision between RIM and U2 that we expect will lead to new and innovative ways to enhance the mobile music experience on the BlackBerry platform for U2 fans. We look forward to sharing more details as the relationship unfolds."

Kevin already called it "sloppy thirds" on our behalf (thanks!) and while Apple is continuing to discover fresh new talent with every iTunes/iPod ad, RIM keeps just going where Apple's long gone from. Wait, do we sense a trend here?

We're not sure if picking on the BlackBerry Storm is even sporting anymore, and you know, we probably wouldn't even bother if RIM hadn't styled it the "Apple Killer" even while bleating that they "couldn't type on glass". Well, according to BlackBerryCool.com, it turns out some other people couldn't type on the Storm's specific type of glass either: the US Government:

"The BlackBerry, to me, is a utilitarian tool,” said Rodell Mollineau, communications staff director for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “It’s not easy to send e-mails on that thing. It is not a good touch screen, and it’s not like the iPhone, where there are so many other great features to it.”

Dear US Government, next time just read TiPb -- we could have saved you lots of frustration (and who knows, maybe even restored your childlike sense of wonder!)

Oh, and get more iPhones!

We've covered why the BlackBerry can't compare the iPhone, why the BlackBerry compares worse than ever to the iPhone 3G, and even what the iPhone could learn from the Blackberry.

So, okay, fair enough. We've beaten the BlackBerry horse so far past death even it's ghost shows bruises. But here's the thing -- the second biggest story of the week (after iPhone OS 2.2, naturally) is the release of the Blackberry Storm, a direct response to Apple's revolutionary iPhone and its unprecedented sales, business, and reliability success.

How could we ignore that, and how could we ignore iPhone owners who are daring to think different(ly) about jumping to the Storm, or have stuck with Verizon this long hoping the Storm would give them reason not to switch to the iPhone AT&T.

The answer is, we can't, and we won't. So after the break, our Top 5 reasons why the BlackBerry Storm STILL doesn't compare to the iPhone!

Flattery Will Get RIM Nowhere

We've joked about iClones before, about RIM's choice of stylings for the Bold, and their note-by-note replication of Apple's iPhone SDK Event, but the Storm is perhaps the ultimate iClone, and for would-be-Storm users, that's a problem.

Just look at the review. Pretty much every reviewer puts the Storm head-to-head against the iPhone, and many of the comparisons don't end up in the Storm's favor. Heck, even CrackBerry.com is getting an incredibly wide range of feedback on the device.

Why? Because in trying to be what a BlackBerry isn't, in trying to stem the bleeding in people (especially business people) leaving the BlackBerry for the iPhone and leaving Verizon for AT&T just to get an iPhone, RIM has created something that compromises the traditional BlackBerry's killer productivity while failing to match the iPhone's unparalleled usability.

In making the whole touch-screen a giant wrist-wrecking button, RIM has create something that's less than the sum of its parts.

BlackBerry OS By Any Other Input Method...

Dieter said it best in his recent BlackBerry Bold review. RIM has reached the point Palm did when they released the 650. While this is true of the Bold, it matters even more to Storm users.

Apple leveraged a modern, advanced desktop class OS to create the iPhone, but also meticulously crafted a whole new -- and unique -- UI paradigm.

RIM reworked a slight variation of their aging embedded micro-Java platform and tacked some touch (and a very few multi-touch) on top of it.

While the situations are admittedly different for a variety of reasons, it's the BlackBerry equivalent of Touch Flo 3D.

Future Un-Proofing

Following the OS train of that, even if RIM has a few more tricks up their sleeves -- hey, maybe even a whole new, next generation OS sitting deep in the bunkers below Waterloo? -- right now they face iPhone OS 2.x leading mobile computing world, and Google's Android all but ready to challenge for that title.

Heck, unlike Palm Nova and Windows Mobile 7, far off vaporware though they may be, RIM hasn't even shed any light whatsoever on their next generation plans, if any.

Apple, for its part, has shown they not only can, but will push out software updates at a near break-neck pace. While even iPhone 2G owners can update to iPhone OS 2.x, giving their last gen hardware some next gen software, BlackBerry certainly hasn't provided as frequent, functional, or simple upgrade paths in the past.

Unfortunately, Storm owners can't enjoy that kind of faith in the future.

Form Factor Fracture

We mentioned earlier that RIM recently iClone'd Apple's iPhone SDK Event, complete with the promise of VC funding, push notification services, an App Store (2 of them, actually), and renewed power for developers.

Then they went ahead and launched the Storm.

So, unlike the iPhone SDK, where developers can pretty much count on similar hardware across 2 platforms (iPhone and iPod Touch) and 2 generations (2007 and 2008 models), RIM developers now can't count on any given handset having touch or multi-touch screen input, having a trackball, or having a hard keyboard.

In order to enjoy the richest experience, would-be Storm users will have to bet on special developed Storm apps, and given the entrenched base of non-Storm BlackBerry's, those aren't great odds.

iTone Deaf

With it's gorgeous full screen, the BlackBerry Storm is clearly aimed at the iPhone's heart and soul. No, not internet communication. iPhone still wins web and BlackBerry is still untouchable at messaging. We're talking media. The high density -- though not Bold-style drool inducing -- should make almost everyone enjoy their movies and TV on it...

If they could get their movies and TV on it.

By going for iTunes sync, RIM has pretty much given up on handling their own media and just gone with iTunes sync (and, hey, wouldn't it be fair to give iPhone users some BlackBerry Connect love in exchange? Huh?) But just connection to iTunes to drag over some MP3 files pales in comparison to Apple's complete ecosystem.

Rent or buy movies, get season passes to TV shows, move them to or from your iPhone, PC/Mac, or AppleTV, enjoy the full catalog of the #1 music retailer... And did we mention in iPhone OS 2.2 you can download not only music, but audio and video podcasts directly to your iPhone?

So not only does "clicking through" the "whole screen button" tire you out and slow you down, you can't even enjoy the same breadth of entertainment while you're resting up.

Conclusion

While RIM deserves some credit for stepping beyond their front-facing keyboard comfort zone with the BlackBerry Storm, they're still playing "catch up" and "me to" with the iPhone. They're still following, not leading.

That's why these five reasons, among others, make us confident the BlackBerry Storm STILL Doesn't compare to the iPhone.

What are your reasons? Or, if you disagree, what are your top 5 retorts?

The iPhone is twice as reliable as the Blackberry after one year of ownership, a new study by SquareTrade finds.

This is big news for users that are looking for a reliable device that don't have the patience for the potential troubles other devices can have in the Enterprise (well, even non-Enterprise environment for that matter). The study is broken into a few different subgroups including:

• Malfunction rate after 12 months
• Malfunction rates since purchase
• Probability of problems based on type (battery, call quality, etc)
• Distribution of malfunction per 100 incidents

All in all, this is excellent news for the iPhone and Apple, congratulations! Read the full report after the jump!  

Reliability Study: iPhone Vs. Blackberry Vs. Treo - Get more Information Technology>

US tax dollars at work dept.: TUAW is reporting (via TheHill.com) that the Chief Administrative Office of the U.S Congress is testing iPhones due to "people requesting them as an option":

Adoption of the iPhone by the U.S. Congress could be another blow to RIM, which is now behind Apple in terms of sales and revenues. Apple CEO Steve Jobs gleefully reported that "Apple beat RIM" during yesterday's Q4 Earnings Call.

7 Million iPhone sold last quarter alone, and we've already heard rumors of HSBC ditching the Blackberry for the iPhone. Is this the beginning of Something Big, or just a simple case of new technology getting the tires kicked?

What say you, Americans?