As BlackBerry Dies, Apple Will Seek To Fill Business Void With iPhone 5
Posted by Michael Nace on Monday Jun 25, 2012 Under iPhone 5 OpinionBlackBerry’s downward spiral is not a new story. But with RIM finally taking steps to possibly phase out their BlackBerry handsets, will Apple’s iPhone 5 be able to absorb RIM’s remaining market share in the business sector?
Anyone who follows mobile computing and technology news has been well aware of RIM’s terminal condition in the smartphone marketplace — we’ve all essentially been waiting to hear of the company’s eventual sell-out or phase-out of its once-domineering BlackBerry devices. In spite of the fact that the BlackBerry brand once ruled both consumer and business sectors of the mobile computing marketplace, it appears that RIM is now taking steps to distance itself from the handset business.
According to the Toronoto Sun:
“BlackBerry maker Research in Motion is considering splitting its business in two, separating its struggling handset manufacturing division from its messaging network, The Sunday Times reported. RIM, which last month hired JP Morgan and RBC Capital to look at its strategic options, could break off its handset division into a separate listed company or sell it, the British newspaper said without citing sources.”
The two options here are interesting, since breaking off BlackBerry into a separate company would dry up much of RIM’s red ink that comes from the failing BlackBerry brand, making it nothing more than a niche player in the smartphone market. To this end, BlackBerry could possibly become a quirkier, more interesting smartphone designer, particularly if their sales expectations becoming considerably lowered.
But the sales option is what strikes a chord with Apple enthusiasts. You might recall that there have been suggestions in the past that Apple could buy up BlackBerry in a bid to completely subsume their market share, thus trumping Android and expanding their appeal to business users. However, rumors of potential buyers go well beyond Apple: “Potential buyers would include Amazon and Facebook. . . adding that RIM’s messaging network could also be sold, or opened up to rivals such as Apple and Google to generate income.”
One can imagine BlackBerry’s overall design to be best suited for a Facebook smartphone, what with the manual thumb pad, which could appeal to avid social media users.
But as far as Apple is concerned, it would appear that Cupertino will be content to compete in the business sector with the iPhone 5.
The rumored features, as well as the new features rolling out with iOS 6, point to an iPhone 5 that could very well appeal to business users, even beyond the increased market share in the business sector that the iPhone has already managed to achieve. With increased performance thanks to a larger display and more powerful processor, as well as further integration with iCloud and Siri, will continue to appeal to business users who are looking for a unified ecosystem for sharing data and bringing their digital workspace with them wherever they go.
And new iOS 6 features such as passbook and Apple’s maps will appeal to business travelers as well.
At this juncture, BlackBerry’s legacy hardware design would not appear to have much of a future. RIM clearly tried to rebrand its designs starting back in 2007 when the iPhone got going, seeking to suggest that iPhone-style smartphones would not appeal to business users. Both Apple and its competing Android designers, however, have proven that what’s good for their consumer-based target audiences can also work for business professionals as well.
For as much as RIM might try to salvage what they can from the BlackBerry brand, 2012 appears to be the year that BlackBerry will die.
By Michael Nace
Michael Nace is the Publisher of the iPhone 5 News Blog and iPhone 6 News Blog. He has published articles about the iPhone since 2010.
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June 25th, 2012 at 9:05 am
Apple seriously lack in the business market and purchasing some of the RIM portfolio wouldn’t be a bad thing. But do Apple really want to go down the business route or are they content with the locked down easy world of iOS and OSX.
Take a look at OSX Server, it is really a home user piece of software, not designed for business at all.
On 9 to 5 today they seem to be sticking to their guns regarding the chassis and parts info they have by stating that the new iPhone will have NFC chips inside and use Passbook through iTunes and the millions of credit card details they already have on file are just a bonus!
Samsung have released some software to transfer all your iTunes libraries over to their Galaxy range with just a few clicks and a few minutes work, shame it won’t transfer the apps. They really are gunning for the iPhone and I think they are trying to capture as much business as possible before the next iPhone appears. They are also one of the major sponsors of the 2012 olympics and will use this to gain as much advertising space as possible for the SG3. We will just have to see what impact this has on Apple iPhone sales over the coming weeks but Apple adverts have increased here in the UK by a large percentage recently.
This is not a Samsung advertisement.
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June 25th, 2012 at 9:08 am
i read an article over the weekend that says Blackberry is gearing up to release it’s own touchscreen phone soon. hopefully, they are able to bounce back.
http://news.yahoo.com/news-summary-first-blackberry-gets-touch-only-210004862–finance.html
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June 25th, 2012 at 10:33 am
There is a lot of really good thing that RIM has in the business market with the Blackberry services they offer.
If Apple were to buy out Blackberry revamps and interrogate some of the BB stuff in to the iPhone and IPad and say came out with a new business version of the IPhone and /or IPad and let’s call the IPhone B and or IPad B they would in my feeling corner the market on phone sales. The infrastructure is already in place to run a separate business network thru the clouds and exchanges services that RIM has.
Can you images if you have worked with both phones having some the features that the Blackberry has but in IPhone with some of business feature that the IPhone has mixed in to one phone or even I Pad’s ,
If they could come out with business model OS version for the IPhone and IPad that has the limits and restriction that the Blackberry cloud and exchange services give you Take out non business parts of the apps in the OS, Apple as company could release2 version of an IPhone and IPad really focus on one group of the market with 2 type of IPhone and I Pad’s targeting that groups of primary users,
Push more apps to the business side of things using the Blackberry apps site. Talk about a wide open worldwide market.
Also look at the personnel side of it as well. I could see a huge market for this the ideals, products, software targets for the area of sales would be unbelievable in my thoughts.
While typing this I am thinking of hundred of ideal that Apple could incorporate and use it for.
I think at that point they could also give Windows OS a hard run for the business market.
What do you all think? Am I way off base with my thoughts?
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June 25th, 2012 at 10:48 am
I agree with you Jim that Apple could gain a lot of business users through a purchase of BB if that’s the direction Apple wants to go, but I don’t think they should produce a business model iPhone or a business version of iOS. My dad’s company provides him with a phone (an iPhone 4, coincidentally) that he uses for both business and personal use. If Apple released a business-only phone or OS, people like him would have to carry around two phones. They should include business settings in the standard iOS and the user should be able to easily toggle these settings off/on with one switch like they can with airplane mode.
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June 25th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
My father is the owner of Continental Tool & Supply Co. & he use to have a blackberry until it wouldn’t do everything he wanted it to do. I told him about the iPhone back when 3G was the latest device, and he purchased the device, and ever since then he says it was the best business phone he’s ever had, I’ve never heard one complaint out of him about the phone, but he always complained about his blackberries. he went through at least 4 blackberries in about 3 or 4 years, and aloof them weren’t good enough for his business.
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June 25th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
All**** not Aloof
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June 25th, 2012 at 12:43 pm
The Blackberry ‘push’ email system is awful, adding a third party platform and complicating the whole system. If your server goes down you have to setup each device again from scratch.
iOS connects to MS Exchange easily and is rock solid.
iOS also connects easily to subscribed calendars which Blackberry and Android cannot currently do.
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June 25th, 2012 at 2:37 pm
Love this blog, but in the last paragraph of every article the links to outside websites cover the type! I thought it was just a random code error but its there on every article now and quite annoying. Still love the blog but someone fix that please.
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June 25th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
This blog is great i love reading your posts. Keep up the great work! You know, a lot of people are hunting around for this info, you could help them greatly.
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June 25th, 2012 at 8:01 pm
Well, to appeal to this person’s business interests, NFC is a must.
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June 25th, 2012 at 11:25 pm
First of all, I agree with posters that say Apple shouldn’t develop one separate phone for business and another for consumers. They should stick to developing only one phone that integrates into both, your personal and work life. One phone, that’s it.
As far as making head-way into the enterprise / business world, no doubt the iPad & iPhone are getting rapidly increasing uptake there but on a percentage basis there is still a ton of room for growth but Apple needs to move quick here for two reason – Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.
The enterprise is MS’ strong-hold and word on the street is that Windows 8 / Windows Phone 8 are very solid products that will integrate tightly with MS’ cloud services and back-end servers. For enterprises this makes for much easier manageability and for .NET developers specifically (of which there are approximately a million), they use their skills on Windows 8, therefore increased developer productivity.
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June 26th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Can someone explain to me how a Blackberry is better than an iPhone for business? The only thing I see people adore from the Blackberry is the physical keyboard. I have used some Blackberries (my sister’s and a friend’s) and everything they have, the iPhone has it at much better quality and it has even more stuff. I just find BB makes everything more difficult to use and complicated. Oh and I still don’t understand what’s all the buzz with BBM. Facebook messenger and iMessage are way better products.
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June 26th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
@ Jim B you must be Blackberry lover ….. you really need to forget about the Blackberry it is old and out dated system and needs to be allowed to fade away like the 8 track or 45 RPM records. It had had it day and till the frist Iphone came out and was the top dog before then.
If you noticed an IPhone is very user friendly, You can do a lot business thing with it. So why would you want to bring something back that it very clear that people are not wanting to use and dropping like a hot potatoe?
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June 26th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
“The only thing I see people adore from the Blackberry is the physical keyboard.”
@Cristian
You hit the nail on the head.
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June 26th, 2012 at 8:52 pm
@Shameer M. I just don’t get it! Even android is a better business platform than Blackberry! Why not just ditch BB and buy one of those Motorola Droids with physical keyboards? I think I saw a case with a slide out Bluetooth keyboard for iPhone… PROBLEM SOLVED!
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July 6th, 2012 at 12:37 pm
Wasn’t research in motion who was advertising on the Superbowl 2012 this year?
Or was that bridgestone? …
idk.. someone was making a commercial about how they made new footballs and basketballs and this and that.
Just sounded like RIM. maybe..maybe not..
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