The History of Blackberry Phones - Research Proposal Example

? Blackberry outperform iphone in features and users BlackBerry is a Smartphone device developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM) in 1999. On the other hand, iPhone is the first touch screen mobile phone device developed by Apple Company during the initial period of 2000. Blackberry and iphone are currently engaged in fierce battle for supremacy in global markets. Both blackberry and iphone have their own advantages and disadvantages. But in my opinion, blackberry has definite edge over iphone. This research proposal is aimed to prove my claims. Objectives Some people say that iphone is far more superior to blackberry whereas others say that blackberry is superior to iphone in features and users. I strongly believe that blackberry has definite edge over iphone in number of users and better features and the major objective of this research is to establish my claims. Introduction/Background Apple Company’s iphone and Research In Motion (RIM)’s blackberry were the most popular mobile phones in the world currently. These products are currently engaged in fierce battle for supremacy across global markets. For example, Chinese and Indian markets are believed to be the most promising emerging markets in the world now because of the rapid economic growth happening there. Both blackberry and iphone are currently trying to establish in these markets. Both the products have its merits as well as demerits. BlackBerry functions as a personal digital assistant with address book, calendar, memopad, and task list capabilities whereas iphone has features like touch screen, enhanced internet browsing capacities, superior audio and video playing and capturing abilities etc. Bbalckberry can also functions as a portable media player and it is capable of sending and receiving Internet e-mail wherever mobile network service coverage is present, or through Wi-Fi connectivity. Methodology This research is intended to be conducted based on secondary data alone. Internet, printed articles, books etc will be used for collecting secondary data about iphone and blackberry. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be used in this research in order to establish my claims. This research will be completed within two weeks. The first 10 days will be used for collecting data and the last five days will be used for writing the final paper. It can be tentatively conclude that blackberry is superior to iphone. Literature review Black Berry phones have superior messaging features. Auto-text, auto-correct, text prediction, support for many languages, keyboard shortcuts, push notifications for email etc are some of the messaging features which are superior to iphone. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc can be easily accessed through blackberries. Berry Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger are the instant message services available in blackberries. Even though, iphone has some of these features, it cannot work as smoothly as blackberries. Blackberries have superior browsing speed and superior message handling facilities compared to iphones. Perhaps even more significantly, the iPhone fails to synchronize as well as the BlackBerry. When a BlackBerry user changes a calendar event or some contact information on his or her desktop computer in Exchange, the changes automatically appear on the BlackBerry. This makes keeping track of basic business information a snap because one never has to worry about acting on outdated data or manually updating one’s handheld. In contrast, the iPhone does not synchronize calendar and contact information wirelessly, which makes it less dependable for information ultimately stored on a server (Hendrickson, 2007) The iPhone’s functions can be easily accessed through a touch screen display using mainly by the finger commands. Moreover the picture quality (25,000 pixels per inch) of iphone is one of the bests among the new generation mobile phones. However, current blackberries have all these features and that also with the help of superior technologies. Iphone display brightness is automatically adjustable and has superior audio features. Blackberries are even better in this category also. Apart from working as a smart phone, iphone can performs tasks like; wireless internet communication, ipad, computer, camera, video recorder etc. At the same time it is difficult for iphones to beat Blackberries as far as the multimedia services and internet services are concerned. The huge brand value of Apple is a big asset for iphone. Apple is currently the number one technological company in the world. Kim (2010) has mentioned that Apple Inc pushed Microsoft behind them and attained second spot in the list of most valuable companies in United States after Exxon Mobil, as far as market capitalization is concerned (Kim, 2010). Moreover they are second only to Exxon mobile in market capitalization. However, when we compare the number of users and various features, Blackberries beat iphone quite clearly. “The number of BlackBerry users worldwide has passed 12 million according to the statistics available in 2007 (Shaw, 2007). “Apple is expected to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. Meanwhile, Research In Motion has 12 million subscribers, and its iconic BlackBerry is selling at a clip of about 4 million units a quarter” (BlackBerry vs. iPhone: Who wins?, 2008). In other words, blackberries are selling at a better rate than iphone. Moreover, iphone failed to capture some of the prominent markets in the world. For example, in China iphone is facing stiff problems with the technology. The iPhone has failed to thrive in China, due in part to an active black market and the Golden Shield Project (GSP), which censors certain Internet content. To comply with the GSP, devices that include wireless Internet have been required to use China's own WAPI standard. Meeting that requirement forced Apple to re-design the iPhone for China. In the meantime, a change in policy permitted devices to have both WAPI and Wi-Fi, but by then it was too late, and the 1st round of re-designed iPhones were released in China without Wi-Fi (Caolo, 2010) China never allows foreign manufacturers to use their Wi Fi technologies because of the security concerns. China screens every foreign product entering the Chinese soil for possible security threats. They are afraid of countries like US and UK due to suspected agendas. On the other hand, China has better belief on Canadian products. Apple forced to redesign its famous model of iphone in order to make them compatible for the Chinese market. In other words, they were forced to produce two types of iphones, one for Chinese market and other for the rest of the world. It is easy to get a replica of iphone in Chinese market for a much lower price. Chinese technicians made lot of cheaper phones similar in functioning of the iphone and people started to buy such phones leaving out the much expensive iphones. On the other hand, blackberries have no such problems in international market. They already entered the Chinese market and are currently established a tie up with the India government for marketing blackberry phones in India. It is difficult to make the replica of blackberry because of the superior technical excellence of blackberries. “With the recent releases of three new BlackBerrys across three different wireless providers, Research In Motion Ltd. has fired back at Apple Inc. in the Great Smart Phone Skirmish of 2008”(Blackberry vs iPhone, 2010). Apart from features, blackberries are popular because of its cheaper price compared to iphones. Prices of iphone are around 40% more than that of the Blackberries. Consumers are more focussed on the prices rather than the claims of a product. Brand images and values have least importance in mobile phone market. Consumers always compare the features and the prices before taking purchasing decisions. Blackberries are comparatively cheaper than iphone and which is the major reason for the increased selling of blackberries in international market. The tentative conclusion is that blackberry is superior to iphone both in features and in number of users. References 1. Blackberry vs iPhone (2010). Retrieved from http://www.sify.com/finance/Blackberry-vs-iPhone-imagegallery-technology-jbvkFaifjbb.html 2. BlackBerry vs. iPhone: Who wins?, (2008). Retrieved from http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/BlackBerryVsiPhoneWhoWins.aspx 3. Caolo D (2010), Apple prepping Wi-Fi iPhone for China, Retrieved from http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/08/apple-prepping-wi-fi-iphone-for-china/ 4. Hendrickson, M. (2007). iPhone v. BlackBerry: Side By Side, Two Week Comparison. Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2007/07/25/iphone-v-blackberry-side-by-side-two-week-comparison/ 5. Kim R. (2010). Apple Passes Microsoft As Top Tech Company, Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/26/BUDJ1DL0IU.DTL 6. Shaw R. (2007). Total BlackBerry user base passes 12 million Retrieved from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/blackberry/total-blackberry-user-base-passes-12-million/490 Read More