Apple Blackberry Pie, Anyone?

I thought I would join the recent battle between Apple and Blackberry.

Here’s an article that I’ve read recently. The general gist of it is that Apple claims to have more iPhones sold in the last quarter than Blackberry has. Apple also added in that Blackberry will not be able to catch up with sales in the foreseeable future.

It seems inappropriate for corporations to be comparing each other’s success based merely on sales. While iPhones and Blackberry phones are smart phones and target a similar consumer market, I believe that both phones are very different in functionality. And from what we learned in marketing class, this is the differentiation between the products and ultimately influences each company’s positioning in the consumer’s perception.

Here’s my little assessment of the two companies:

Blackberry’s: More functions geared towards business professionals. Better security, easier navigation between email accounts, allows documents and spreadsheets to be easily accessed and read, for consumers who like the feeling of the keys while texting, etc.

iPhones: Greater use of your fingers (scrolling, zooming in), syncs with you Macbook, entails a wider range of entertainment (e.g. iPod, Apps, etc.), an entire App store for download and use

While I am biased on my evaluation, I think this is the main take-away from my blog. I don’t think it’s necessary for corporations to be fighting like little kids over who has more sales. I think that the most important thing is for corporations to be open-minded and aware of their competitions. Especially with technology, since it is changing ever so quickly, corporations need to stay on the edge, think of new sustainable competitive advantages. This is what drives innovation. This is what advances our society to come up with better and more efficient ways of doing things. And when corporations become too focused on sales, no one benefits.

Anyway, totally excited for new phone releases. I’m still not sure whether I want an iPhone or a Blackberry Bold yet…