iPhone versus BlackBerry in SA

[rpm]

BlackBerry versus iPhone in South Africa

The iPhone has taken the smartphone market by storm in the United States, but locally the picture looks a bit different

[morkhans]

Goldstuck explains that the iPhone market share in South Africa is currently very low which means that it can only grow, especially when the iPhone becomes available on all networks.

Must have taken him ages to come up with that idea.

[moosag]

The problem is that a steep learning curve is required to experience iPhone e-mail functionality at the same level as the BlackBerry's. This means that the new user can take instantly to the latter, while taking time to adapt to the former

Aside from the fact that I own an iPhone I find this statement wholly untrue. Steep learning curve??

The iPhone's email application is near if not identical to Outlook, gmail etc... There is no learning curve! If anyone struggles to use their email in an iPhone your an idiot. That same person will struggle equally on a BB...

But hey maybe I am wrong?? What's the rest of your thoughts??

[bwana]

Aside from the fact that I own an iPhone I find this statement wholly untrue. Steep learning curve??

The iPhone's email application is near if not identical to Outlook, gmail etc... There is no learning curve! If anyone struggles to use their email in an iPhone your an idiot. That same person will struggle equally on a BB...

But hey maybe I am wrong?? What's the rest of your thoughts??

You're

As a BB and iPhone user I have to say the BB has messaging down pat.

[JayN]

BB has the edge in international markets (outside US) because of the flat fee for data and on device data usage. In the US it does not matter because WiFi coverage is everywhere and cheap and therefore the iPhone comes up better. In SA with high data costs, better to go with BB. I am an iPhone user and hate using the data outside of a WiFi coverage are because I don't have a data package and I know it is costing me significantly more. My wife has a BB and you never have a though about how much checking email or looking something up is costing you.

[phillipgibb]

I find that strange, and hardly worth a comparison. Maybe we in SA are missing out on good BlackBerry options?
iPhone vs HTC - yeah, but not BB.
but I must say - that the 'free' internet on the BB is a big draw card.
services like that - or even just more affordable will open the mobile market to many people.

Phillip Gibb
http://phillipgibb.com

[bwana]

BB has the edge in international markets (outside US) because of the flat fee for data and on device data usage. In the US it does not matter because WiFi coverage is everywhere and cheap and therefore the iPhone comes up better. In SA with high data costs, better to go with BB. I am an iPhone user and hate using the data outside of a WiFi coverage are because I don't have a data package and I know it is costing me significantly more. My wife has a BB and you never have a though about how much checking email or looking something up is costing you.

IIRC the r59pm we pay locally for unlimited blackberry connectivity is a bit of a rarity. I know that Vodafone UK limits you to 500MB as I'm sure others do too.

[aekritzinger]

if it was cheaper adoption rate would be greatly increased.

[Nimz]

These 2 phones cannot be compared there are to many differences and both were built for different purposes in my opinion.

Ps. I own both.... 9700 and a 3Gs

[Nimz]

These 2 phones cannot be compared there are to many differences and both were built for different purposes in my opinion.

Ps. I own both.... 9700 and a 3Gs

[McT]

My missus got her BB (or Raspberry) a few months back. She has never owned a smartphone or had the desire to, but I can safely say that's all changed. She loves the machine and actively uses email and IM. She's not into Twitter or Facebook, but loves the social aspect which her BB offers.

Looking at what BB offers locally through BIS, BB have made it a difficult offer to walk away from.

[drukkie]

BB owns all phone wrt facebook email and messaging...and that was on the bottom of the range curve...it just works...
But those work on my android phone too(not as well) but i can live with that
With Cellc's cheap data rates the free internet is going to fall away as a selling point.

[TheGuy]

My missus got her BB (or Raspberry) a few months back. She has never owned a smartphone or had the desire to, but I can safely say that's all changed. She loves the machine and actively uses email and IM. She's not into Twitter or Facebook, but loves the social aspect which her BB offers.

Looking at what BB offers locally through BIS, BB have made it a difficult offer to walk away from.

+1 We have a predominately female company and of the 80 users I would say about 30 have switched. The ones that have switched are so brand committed that BB would have to do something really stupid for them to ever switch.

[Ecco]

The only thing the blackberry has over the iphone is free internet.

Whatever else it can do, the iphone and other smartphones can do better.

I also think blackberries are the flavour of the moment right now, everybody just wants one because they seen to be cool: "Look i can get my e-mail on my phone" or "i can send blackberry messages to people"

[Speedster]

I think the big difference is simply the pricing. The low end BB is very affordable as far as smart phones go, while the iPhone is ridiculously over priced. Maybe if we could get an iPhone for R120pm with unlimited on device browsing and some free minutes to boot we'd have a couple more around.