For nearly a decade, smartphones and communicators have been screaming for recognition. The lack of attractive consumer features, however, has kept them a clear distance from the consumer market. From a buyer's perspective, these devices made more sense for corporate and business users, who tend to invest in advanced devices and services in order to increase productivity and efficiency.
The best-performing devices of this kind have never been widely regarded as the sleekest and hottest phones around, but rather seem heavily optimized for extensive battery life and e-mail reliability. Of course we're thinking here of the the corporate BlackBerry devices by RIM.
Later this year, RIM plans to launch the RIM BlackBerry Thunder on Verizon Wireless. It is rumored to be an all-touch smartphone similar to the iPhone 3G, featuring a pretty capable browser, Rhapsody music service, haptic feedback and EV-DO connectivity (though nothing is confirmed). However, the BlackBerry OS is considered a less attractive OS among developers, so you'll not see the same buzz around their third-party opportunities on the software side as seen with Apple's Mac OS X and Google's Android.
RIM's main advantage over all the other competitors have been its hardware and messaging services. They've been cranking out EV-DO smartphones for years, while Apple is on completely new ground with its 3G enabled iPhone. Looking at the 3G connectivity of the iPhone 3G, this kind of device would have been "quietly" launched with every other manufacturer. Only hardcore users (and there's plenty of them out there) would have bought it, and appreciated the fact that a new player continued to gain new ground.
And that's pretty much where all the players in the mobile market are now in terms of offering consumers advanced devices and services; they are all gaining new ground on various fronts. Just like it took years to shape great advanced devices and services for business and corporate users, it'll take years to shape great advanced devices and services for consumers.
Even though the competition is stiff, there's nothing to gain by pushing the marketing at this point of time, let's keep pushing the technology a few more steps ahead first. And then, it's time to start flirting with the masses for real.
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