President Obama is a loyal Blackberry user. He hasn’t really tested other mobile operating systems as far as we know, but he did come across an iPhone recently. The press took notice and snapped some pictures. The next day, the media was abuzz on Obama, Blackberry and iPhone. But what’s the hype?
The President’s ‘incident’ with the iPhone took place when he decided to call some campaign workers while at Port St. Lucie a couple of weeks back. Someone offered him an iPhone and strangely enough, the president couldn’t find his way around it. When he needed to make another call, he was handed a pre-dialed phone; by that point, everyone around knew for sure that the President couldn’t work his way around an iPhone.
When it comes to the battle between iPhone and Blackberry amongst the most high-profile users, iPhone manages to take the lead with a long list of popular celebrities and politicians making up its user base. However, the longstanding Tinsel Town competition between Blackberry users and iPhone users seems to be dying away. Although Blackberry is still popular with the business class, iPhone has eroded much of its marketshare, with more expected. Research In Motion (RIM) has failed to deliver the necessary innovation in its new range of smartphones. The new RIM operating system (OS) is just like the old one, while the relatively small Blackberry screens have also maintained their dimensions. Meanwhile, other phone manufacturers such as Samsung and Apple are not only innovating their OS’, they are also improving screen size, resolution an other key hardware features.
Although there is no comparison between iPhone 5 and the current Blackberry lineup, many feel that Blackberry still has a trick or two up its sleeves. It’s hard to know whether Blackberry will be able to get back to where it once was, but having a high-profile fan (our President) sure helps. In the meantime, with over 2 million pre-orders within 24 hours of its launch and more than 5 million iPhone 5’s sold within the first 3 days of release, the iPhone 5 is replacing thousands of Blackberry phones, worldwide.
In favor of the iPhone, it may just be time for our President to become a Blackberry user no more.
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