There's good news and bad news about user affinity for BlackBerry, iPhone or other devices. The good news is that such devices have made an intangible product--communications--quite tangible. To the extent that users "love" their preferred devices, there is a real bond, of sorts, with the experiences that in turn drive revenue for service and application providers.
It might be better, from a service or app provider perspective, if the emotional bond were more directly related to the "service" itself. But I doubt few human beings are emotionally attached to the provider of their "bit stream."
So far, mobile devices are the closest thing the communications industry ever has developed to fragrances, clothing brands, auto brands, golf club brands, or just about any other item for which there is an important and compelling human attachment.
It is an important breakthrough, which service and app providers then must surround with additional features that make the experience even more entertaining, fun, useful or easy to use. There is some distance to go, to be sure.
But one should not discount the importance of the breakthrough: for the first time, there is a personal, tangible, "fun" and engaging expression of the value of the communications service.
People use telephones and PCs. But they now "love" particular devices. This is a huge and important change. As furntiture, street addresses, certifications, degrees, customer references and other tangible elements are proxies for what a potential buyer can expect in terms of "quality," so now devices are becoming proxies for what users can expect in terms of "personal" communications. The difference? Getting beyond "utility" and approaching "brand affinity."
There are revenue and margin implications, as there always are when a brand can establish itself as representing some key value.
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