iPhone, Android or Blackberry. Who is the winner?

A recent study shows that the latest sales numbers for Android-based phones are larger than those for the iPhone. But RIM’s BlackBerry beats them both. Sounds so strange for me because as the smart phone wars rage on, one thing has become eminently clear: Consumers are in love with fruit flavors – especially Apples and Blackberries 🙂

That’s why I was interested in learning someone else opinion.

“Currently, RIM has a solid market share because of their history. That gives them the benefit of loyal customers in the face of newer technologies being implemented and released. Ultimately though, RIM is in last place technology-wise. They took longer than everyone else to incorporate high speed internet, touch screen functionality, etc.

Android is the current leader because they have a solid product, an even more solid marketing scheme and most importantly, diversity and availability. The partnership with companies like HTC and Motorola allows Google to focus on the software and leverages other capable hardware manufacturers to do the work of building the handset. They were smart enough to avoid carrier exclusivity which means their handsets can be enjoyed and used by customers of any network. That alone opens them up to more of an international consumer base and a greater domestic one as well.

Apple and its iPhone have done themselves a great number of disservices. First off, by locking themselves to one carrier, they lose a portion of their consumer base that isn’t willing to ditch a carrier just for a phone. Secondly, they lose the international audience because they solely develop one piece of hardware that connects to one type of network and its one set of frequencies. Europe, Asia and Australia (who all use different frequencies) are left out in the cold. Lastly, the iPhone has consistently been a letdown with each new release. The first one was slow with no features. The second one added some features but they were weaker than every other phone out there. The third iteration was a glorified remodel of the second with cut and paste thrown in. The fourth release was plagued with yellow screens and the “grip of death” fiasco. Apple’s greatest power is its marketing machine but unless they expose themselves to more of the market by dealing with other carriers (especially internationally), they’ll never be able to maintain a true lead in the industry.

Ultimately, phones are subjective instruments that have as much to do with the user as they do with the device itself and you can’t really declare a winner so much as you can say who has the best outlook for the near future. I wouldn’t expect Android to lose much momentum in the near term and it remains to be seen whether or not Microsoft has any hopes of making a dent when they release Windows Phone 7. Good question, by the way.”
Jonathan Younie

“I think “winner” is a vague question. It does appear that the latest numbers show Android outselling iPhone, but I really don’t think that includes the numbers of iPhones sold in their most recent release (there’s debate on whether it does).
No matter what, Android is the hottest and fastest growing architecture. iPhone loyalists feel their UI is best as do Android loyalists.

However, Android has an advantage in that it’s not locked to one network, or even one device for that matter. For the most part and with their history of releases, Apple can only release a new device once a year. However, a new hot Android device is coming out almost monthly. That’s a pace that Apple will struggle keeping up with going forward.
However, RIM, though they haven’t kept pace with technology or a new interface (even with their most recent release yesterday), has tremendous loyalty from IS support/infrastructure staff because of its proven security model. Apple and Android are still catching up there, so I wouldn’t count Blackberry out….probably won’t be a lot of growth, but I doubt they’ll have a rapid loss of user base either especially within the corporate world.

So the winner? Who knows? Personally, I think Android has the most potential for growth (both in terms of numbers of devices and use within corporate infrastructures), but I could definitely be wrong.

All I know is it’ll be exciting to watch.”
Rich Kneece

“The winner is the consumer, because we have choices and because competition among these technologies results in greater innovation and better value.”
Bob Kalsey

“It all depends what you mean by winner of course. Although RIM has the largest market share currently, Android is catching up very quickly. What is much more interesting though is the desires of BlackBerry owners. According to a Nielsen report (see link below), 50% of BlackBerry owners say they will switch OS at the next upgrade. Just 11% of Iphone owners said they would switch.”
Mark Brill

“It will be very early to say …who is winner?
What I say is… mobile market is growing as well as changing rapidly and it required time to finalize who is winner as all are trying HARD enough to save the current position/market share and after that only the question come how to be number one… 🙂 “
Sandeep Choudhary

Who is the winner in your opinion?