IPhone vs Blackberry
The fight for dominance
FMGT 1K
VASPER
October 20th, 2009
Eric Jo
Vivian Jian
Raymond Chiang
Paul Blair
Stacey Yun
Amber Georgeson
In 1999 Research in Motion (RIM) introduced an ingenious product referred to as the “BlackBerry.”
This product gave business people the option of having emails sent to their handheld device.
Although it was released in 1999 it did not become main stream until the 21st century. Within the first
five years they had sold roughly 2 million phones world wide. Just as BlackBerry was evolving at a
rapid rate, Apple introduced the revolutionary IPhone. It was the first to have a touch screen and to be
affiliated with the largest legal music downloading site in North America. These two mobile devices
are now struggling for control of this market place and are constantly competing with each other.
Problems
With such a large customer base and still increasing, how can BlackBerry increase their demand to
overcome Iphone? Watching the Iphone have great success in the last two years, how can BlackBerry
match their services in order to attain Iphones market share?
Key Findings
There are two main companies that produce portable communication and music devices.
The two companies are Research in Motion (RIM) and Apple. RIM produces a line of products called
BlackBerry. RIM first introduced a 2-way pager and now has grown to have 7 different vartiations of
mobile devices. Currently as of 2009, BlackBerry has operations in 135 countries and has over 14
million people using their products.
Apple on the other hand, sells not only the IPhone but other electronics such as computers,
and IPods across the world. Along with the electronics, they own the world’s largest legal music
downloading store, iTunes. In the last 2 years Apple has sold 40 million IPhones across the world.
With Apple already having established a well known name, the IPhone was instantly thought of a
superior product from its astounding reputation.
Assumptions
The growth of the mobile marketplace is one of the bright spots for businesses. Increasing
demand for data services, both IPHONE and RIM reported strong growth in earnings by sales of their
products. However, it seems the iPod controls the market even though BlackBerry has great features.
Different people favor different features; therefore, they buy different phones. If RIM could add more
applications, gaming and better their software, the BlackBerry brand would soon meet or surpass the
iPhone.
SWOT ANALYSIS:
IPhone:
Strengths
Apples Iphone is a very fashionable devise that had amazing amounts of press when it was
released to the public. It is loosely based off of the Ipod which has sold over two hundred million
devises worldwide. The ipod is more a personal entertainment divise than the BlackBerry. It has lots of
different settings that you can download to personalize your Iphone. There are reports that there are
two hundred thousand applications and games for this devise. Apple has cam up with a music source
called Itunes which is now the biggest seller of music in the world.
Weaknesses
The Iphone is known for being a younger generation’s phone. It is more of a trendy devise
than a phone used for business. There is the Ipod touch which is very similar to the Iphone. So people
will have a Ipod touch and regular cell phone. As a result they are still getting an apple product.
There are also some people that do not like apples products because they are not as easily
compatible to regular personal computers.
Opportunities
Apple as a company is growing in popularity and this will help all of there products from
computers to Iphones. The popularity of the Ipod will lead a lot of customers into the iphone. With the
growth of Apple world wide there will be many door opened for the Iphone.
BlackBerry:
Strengths
BlackBerry has a great reputation with the business world. They are known for being the best
at producing personal digital assistants for 21st century business person. They were the first phone to
have email capability with a full keyboard. Emailing people from your phone is fast and effective. The
BlackBerry also has a program called BlackBerry messenger that a free service for BlackBerry users
to text each other. Cell Phone providers are not able to bill people for their messages like they can for
text messages. Email from BlackBerry is very easy and fast to use. There several different models of
the blackberry that a customer can choose from.
Weaknesses
BlackBerry is a very expensive product and only a select market of people can afford these devices.
Once a person owns the device it costs those more to use per month because of the data plans
necessary to use the devise. Some people find the technology hard to use.
Opportunities
RIM has many opportunities for growth around the world. Firstly most people who use this
technology will need a new devise every couple of years and this will generate sales. Secondly the
two billion people in India and China will start to use devises like Iphones and BlackBerries. This
market is 5 times larger than North America and will be a larger.
Threats for both
For both of these companies there could be a new product from another cellphone company
that would be in this market. Microsoft and Sony are two major companies that could be direct
competition. Computers are becoming small and could transform into personal communication
devises.
Competitive Analysis
Although BlackBerry is known as one of the top mobile devices, they are not the top selling
company. As of January 2009, companies such as Nokia selling 38.6%, Samsung selling 16.2%,
Motorola and LG (tied in third) selling 8.3% and Sony Ericsson selling 8% all surpassing RIM and
Apple which share less than 3% combined.
With recent growth rate, both Apple and RIM are becoming more influential in the cell phone
market. Within the last year the companies have doubled their share in the market. Relative price
points are that they are approximately double the price of an average phone.
Target Market for
Since apple introduced the Iphone it has risen to be a influential mobile device with distinct
features, differentiating it from competitors’ products. The Iphone target customers mostly consist of
those in generation X(32-43 yrs old) and Y(13-31 yrs old). Since the iPhone was first introduced on
January 2007, more than 40 million iPhones have now been sold worldwide.
BlackBerry’s have always been targeting affluent business professionals; this is not to say that
the non-business population aren’t interested. In the last quarter, 45 percent were non-business users,
still leaving 55 percent being business orientated users. They are constantly trying to incorperate
phones to attract younger users, however with the Iphone being such a dominate force this has
become difficult to accomplish.
What people like most about IPhone & BlackBerry
Iphone
1.
Integration of phone, iPod and Web browser
2.
Touch Screen interface
3.
Ease of Use
4.
The Safari Browser & Applications
5.
Voicemail Displayed Visually
The priorities of iPhone users are dramatically different from RIM users. Browsing was the iPhone
users’ best feature, followed by touch screen interface. iPhone users were much more interested in
music, maps, 3G, and the ability to add new software within minutes. iPhone has the most diverse
feature profile, although browsing and touch screen interface are the clear leading features.
The 2 different types of iPhone
 iPhone 3G
 iPhone 3Gs
iPhone 3G- 8GB1 Black $99
iPhone 3GS- 16GB White $199
iPhone 3GS 32GB White $299
Black $299
( all with contracts)
BlackBerry
1.
Email Access
2.
Internet Access
3.
Keypad
4.
Ease of USE
5.
Size
BlackBerry users mostly favor e-mail. They are also much
more interested than average phone users in web browsing. BlackBerry users are substantially less
interested in price or size of the phone.
RIM’s Blackberrys:
 BlackBerry storm2
 BlackBerry curve 8900, 8520 and 8300
 BlackBerry tour
 BlackBerry bold
 BlackBerry pearl
 BlackBerry pearl flip series
 BlackBerry 8800 series
 Past smart phones
Alternative
#1
The blackberry is in need of some serious work when it comes to gaming. The IPhone offers
163 various games such as Tap Tap Tap (similar to guitar hero), Texas Hold’em, Super Monkey Ball,
Labyrinth and more. Blackberry supports one main game; that being brick breaker. More games costs
extra or just are not available. However, with blackberry being a business orientated phone it is not
saying that they should include every game preloaded onto the phone. The games should be
advertised and easily accessible similar to the IPhone. This will give the owner the option of
downloading games or just having the blackberry for business use. This will also generate a wider
range of customers mainly focusing on the younger generations needs. The only disadvantage with
this added feature would be the cost of the research and development. This would require much time
and staff to generate this production.
#2
Blackberry is in such high demand in our society that it is becoming more and more
difficult to compete with its top competitor the IPhone. When IPhone was released it
immediately affected the blackberry market. The innovative design and aura of the phone
was not only attractive to the eye but it also had itunes. Itunes is the largest legal music
downloading site in the world. On top of that, IPhone also supplies an application store which
offers over 100,000 application options for little or no cost. This is becoming an issue for
blackberry as that gave the iphone an advantage on capturing the younger eye.
In order to increase their popularity with a younger audience they should:

Affiliate themselves with one of the leading music sites or design their own
application pointed towards music downloading. Having this option on the
blackberry will bring in a younger group retracting the attention off of IPhone.

Advertise the application. Blackberry all ready has a music and application store
developed; however, the problem is that not everyone is aware of it. They do not
advertise or showcase the option as well or much as the IPhone does with iTunes.
Disadvantages of this option would be in business situations the phone may be used more
for entertainment rather than focusing on business. Also it will be more expensive to
advertise these options.
If Blackberry can increase their popularity with the younger generation they will have no
problem surpassing the IPhone.
#3
Lastly, in order to attract a wider customer base, we believe they should offer a
standard base model affordable to the general public. This would encourage new cliental
base. If BlackBerry were to achieve this it would retract market shares from those leading
companies like Nokia, Samsung and LG. Also it would generate more revenue for the
company allowing the development of these new products.
At the same time, a disadvantage of this would be ruinning the brand power of these
products. For example, Rolls Royce will not produce an “economy” car blaintly because they
want to retain a “higher status” vehicle.
Solution
As these alternatives can all increase the market share we believe that alternative 2
would be best suited. This is because although lowering the price and advancing the games
would help personalize each phone, the application service would invite a larger customer
base. In order for the applications to work, they need to be simple to attain and use. These
applications may already exist, though they are unseen without advertising.
Implementation Plan
In order to achieve this they need to organize a focus group to learn what type of
applications the customers desire. After we have these applications, we will design them
according to their wants and needs. These will be available on new phones and be able to
download the applications from the online site.
Plan B
If by chance plan A does not work, we would suggest coming up with a lower priced
model. We would put it under a different name (ie. Blueberry) to make sure the BlackBerry
status would not be affected.
Course Concepts Used
During this case study, we used multiple concepts. For example we used the 4 P’s
to develop our alternatives and solutions, we used the demographics to decipher the target
market and lastly we used the SWOT analysis to develop our “swot” section.
Resources:
www.apple.com
www.blackberry.com
www.rim.com
http://www.google.com/finance?q=rim
http://blog.changewave.com/2008/12/apple_iphone_rim_blackberry.html
http://marketingpractice.blogspot.com/2007/02/blackberry-smallsmart-stylish.html
http://www.edit-text.com/364623-History-of-the-Blackberry-Phone.html
http://www.readwriteweb.com/