Blackberry users ready to abandon ship for the iPhone, Nexus One

If a recent survey from market research firm Crowd Science is anything to go by, there's dark times ahead for RIM, maker of the Blackberry smartphone. 40% of survey respondents said they plan to ditch their Blackberry handset for an iPhone when it's time to upgrade. As if that wasn't bad enough, another 32% of those surveyed said they'd be getting a Nexus One for their next smartphone instead of another Blackberry. The survey doesn't appear to have asked about other companies' smartphones, but even if they didn't, the story told by these numbers is bad enough as is: at best, only 28% of current Blackberry users plan on sticking with the platform.

The Crowd Science survey also gives some insight into why Blackberry users are ready to flock to other platforms. The Blackberry is usually seen as a stereotypically "business" phone and not one that the average user picks up for strictly personal use, and the survey's numbers support that notion. Only 16% of Blackberry users said they used the handset for personal use only, compared to 28% of iPhone users and 32% of Android users.

Another possible reason the iPhone and Android platforms are drawing Blackberry users away? Apps. Compared to iPhone and Android users, Blackberry owners are far less likely to download apps -- 67% of Blackberry owners hadn't downloaded any free apps in the 7 days before the survey, and 91% hadn't bought any apps, either. Meanwhile, nearly 2/3 of iPhone users had downloaded at least one free app during the same time, as had more than 2/3 of Android users; additionally, over 1/3 of iPhone users surveyed had downloaded a paid app during the week prior to the survey.

What's bad news for RIM is good news for both Apple and Google. And according to the same Crowd Science survey, the battle lines are already firmly drawn between those two platforms, too -- 90% of iPhone users plan on sticking with the iPhone for their next upgrade, while 90% of Android users plan on staying with Google's smartphone platform.

[Via Ars Technica]

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Source: http://www.crowdscience.com/blog/article/android_battles_iph…

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If a recent survey from market research firm Crowd Science is anything to go by, there's dark times ahead for RIM, maker of the Blackberry...

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Mark Beech

I think people are missing the point here. The reason why very few apps are downloaded from the Blackberry store is because a large percentage of blackberry users (me included) have them provided by there employers. If my company is anything to go by, and I have heard that we are the largest single organisation of blackberries, the IT department locks it down so we are unable to add anything additional. I would love to download Facebook or Twitter apps for Blackberry - I am simply not able to do so.

March 17 2010 at 10:44 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

daniel

I LOVE my blackberry and don't want an iphone. tuaw stinks.

March 17 2010 at 12:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Shevonne

Been thinking about it. The only thing that makes me rethink that is that with the Blackberry Messenger, I can talk to my family in Panama for free.

March 16 2010 at 9:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steve

I wonder how many of that 28% are "sticking with the platform" because their cell phone is mandated by the company they work for?
My wife, for example, is forced to use a Blackberry by her large corporation employer. Hmmm, I wonder how many actually WANT to keep their Blackberrys?

March 16 2010 at 9:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Michel Cochegrus

I currently own a Blackberry Bold 9000, and I would switch to iPhone if it had tethering enabled. The most anoying thing about blackberrys is the complete memory hog they are and the limit you have in not being able to install and run apps from the memory card.

March 16 2010 at 8:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

G Rynne

I love my iPhone but find AT&T's service terrible. I switched from a Blackberry on U.S. Cellular, and I rarely lost a call. With AT&T, more than half my calls get dropped... that's when I have service at all. Email is okay, but I miss customizable alerts and individual signatures for different accounts. As great as the iPhone is, I often regret the switch.

March 16 2010 at 6:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

xbryan

I can't believe anyone would choose a BlackBerry over the far superior options out there. Let's see, crappy, buggy, and slow OS? Check. Susceptible to outages because all emails are routed through a RIM NOC? Check. Limited choice of lame apps? Check. Ridiculously bad browser? Check. Corporations need to shell out money to host and administer a BES? Check. No clue why they are still around. If you are an Apple-hater, do yourself a favor and get an Android device or a Palm Pre.

March 16 2010 at 3:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Brian

all the complaints about not being able to type on an iphone are garbage - those little bb keyboards are super-tiny and awkward unless your fingers are tiny, too.

March 16 2010 at 3:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dan

I am stuck in the opposite issue. My new employer mandates BB's and I had to give up my iPhone. I would have argued to keep my iPhone but there is no GSM coverage in the area I work.

The BB interface is awful not to mention the browser sucks big time.

March 16 2010 at 3:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jason

RIM have themselves to blame. I loved my BlackBerry Pearl and it served me well for two years. But instead of replacing it with a faster, more advanced model of the same form factor, they came out with that lame flip-phone Pearl, with the same archaic processor and memory. So I got a 3G S, and I couldn't be happier.

March 16 2010 at 3:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Jason's comment

Urbz

Exactly. Before my iPhone, I had an older blackberry and LOVED it, warts and all.
I thought of how great the updated blackberries were... and then practically felt HURT when i saw that my friends' BBs were almost exactly the same as my 2004 model. They had cameras sure, but apart from the scroll whee becoming a scroll ball, the UI stayed completely intact. I can do things so much quicker with my iPhone... I hope RIM gets with the times and starts putting out devices that are comparable to android/iphone os. (I tried out android and like it, for the most part, though hardware is very important)

Still, a BB is way more solid than a WM phone, which flat out SUCK.

March 19 2010 at 9:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply