This is quite the number to sell considering the pre-order problems AT&T had and the fact that Apple is still using AT& T exclusively. Furthermore, the iPhone 4 was just released in 5 countries and won’t be released to an additional 18 nations until the end of July.
Read the full Gizmodo article…
Just less than two years ago back in Canada I recall arguing with many people about the impact of the iPhone and my categorization of it as a disruptive technology. This really is a “I told you so moment”. The following is an excerpt from a post I made in a Lethbridge College Educational Technology blog back on November 24, 2008.
The Blackberry Storm is supposed to be RIM’s answer to the iPhone but after watching and reading several reviews of the device I think RIM has not only missed the mark but they are a classic example of how a market leader’s success prevents them from seeing the next “big” opportunity. Christensen the author of the Innovator’s Dilemma points out that serving their best clients and focusing on what has brought them success in the past is the same thing that will prevent a market leader from taking advantage of the latest disruptive innovation.
The Blackberry Storm has a large touch screen and has all the best of RIM’s latest features so it is a the ultimate business enterprise device for keeping up with email and calendaring on the road but it lacks WIFI. In addition, Jason Hiner points out in his TechRepublic video review of the Storm it doesn’t come close to matching the iPhone’s usability and web browsing capability.
There is no denying the Storm or any other Blackberry for that matter are much superior devices than the iPhone for a business user whose priorities are email and calendering but no Wifi, poor usability and poor web browsing are huge issues to a Net Gen user or anyone else uses the web to its fullest potential (Web 2.0 & the Cloud). If you aren’t paying attention to were the Net Gen user is going and what they really want then you are missing “the next big thing”. It will be interesting to see if RIM will join the ranks of so many other companies who’s success prevents them from seeing where the market is going.
This is a “told you so moment” if there ever was one.
This is a classic example of disruptive innovation–we are still just in the early stages of this disruption and only time will tell just how significant this latest release will be. To be fair to RIM, Nokia is the market leader whose overall market share is being eroded by the iPhone, Blackberry and Android.
