RIM, Apple, Google Grow in Smartphones, Microsoft and Palm Drop

Over the last three months, Research in Motion, Apple and Google have gained smartphone market share, while Microsoft and Palm have lost share, comScore says.

42.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones in an average month during the November 2009 to January 2010 period, up 18 percent from the August through October period.

RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 43percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, rising 1.7 percentage points versus three months earlier. Apple ranked second with 25.1 percent share (up 0.3 percentage points), followed by Microsoft at 15.7 percent, Google at 7.1 percent (up 4.3 percentage points), and Palm at 5.7 percent.

Google’s Android platform continues to see rapid gains in market share.

In an average month during the November through January 2010 time period, 63.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.5 percentage points versus three months prior.
Browsers were used by 28.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 1.8 percentage points), while subscribers who played games made up 21.7 percent (up 0.4 percentage points). Access of social networking sites or blogs experienced strong gains in the past three months, growing 3.3 percentage points to 17.1 percent of mobile subscribers.

Social networking now is more popular than listening ot music, at least where it comes to mobile device activities.

Enterprise Workers Ready to Ditch Their PCs for Smartphones?

Something rather unusual seems to be happening in the enterprise mobility space. According to a recent survey taken by iPass, 63 percent of mobile employees prefer to use a smartphone, not a laptop, as their primary mobile device, for trips of any length.

For trips of up to five days, 59 percent of respondents prefer to carry a smartphone, while 41 percent prefer a laptop. For trips lasting longer than 30 days, 64 percent prefer a smartphone to a laptop.

That likely is testament to the high value traveling workers place on voice and text communications, as well as the increased capabilities smartphones now offer, including email and Web access.

But the findings also suggest that some enterprises are over-investing in laptops and software and might need to look at scenarios where mobile or traveling workers can get along just fine with smartphones.

There is another and possibly darker view here as well. Industry suppliers have been touting mobility investments as a driver of productivity. As it now appears, enterprise workers do not even want to carry laptops with them when traveling. So what is the value of all those investments in remote access?

Granted, most enterprises likely are trying to get a better handle on mobile phone expenses, so indiscriminate replacment might not be wise. But the survey also suggests the near-universal embrace of the BlackBerry has "soft" support from users.

According to the iPass survey, while 32 percent of mobile employees ranked the BlackBerry smartphone as their mobile device of choice, 54 percent of BlackBerry smartphone users would switch to an Apple iPhone if it was supported by their enterprise.

"Mobility" also once was an issue of supporting traveling workers. Today every employee
is a potential mobile employee, iPass says. While many mobile employees have some business travel, many more are logging in from home.

About 68 percent of iPass survey respondents did not travel during the last quarter of 2009, but  45.8 percent of mobile employees logged in from home at least twice a month, and 16.8 percent logged in more than ten times a month.

Excluding home and the office, mobile employees most often log in from hotels (42.6 percent), airports (27.2 percent), retail outlets and restaurants (27 percent).

According to the iPass survey, while 32 percent of mobile employees ranked the BlackBerry smartphone as their mobile device of choice, 54 percent of BlackBerry smartphone users would switch to an Apple iPhone if it was supported by their enterprise.

Native Twitter App for BlackBerry Coming

Historically, the ability to make and receive telephone calls from a device in your pocket or purse, anytime, has been the killer application for mobile phones. Recently, other killer apps have emerged. For many smartphone users, the killer app was email in the pocket or purse.

Recently, access to the mobile Web, or perhaps the App Store could be seen as the key driver of iPhone adoption, while now social networking has emerged as the first consumer killer app for smartphones.

You could get a debate about whether users prefer to have a discrete application to get to their social networking sites, or are just as happy using their mobile browsers. But lots of people, and lots of suppliers, might vote for the application approach.

Now BlackBerry seems to be close to getting its own RIM-supplied Twitter app. There are other Twitter apps available for Blackberries. UberTwitter and TwitterBerry, SocialScope and Tweetcaster, are examples.

But the BlackBerry blog "CrackBerry" says an official RIM Twitter app is under development as well.

Apparently the RIM versiion will be integrated with other core BlackBerry applications and be tied in to the address book, browser and device setup wizard.

If one wanted to know why an official RIM version might get traction, as opposed to any other app, it likely is the degree of integration with other BlackBerry apps. We'll know soon enough.

Do People Expect Too Much from Nexus One?

The Nexus One launch has not gone flawlessly, that is clear enough. Users report their devices are randomly switching between the T-Mobile USA 3G and the EDGE network. Early Apple iPhone devices had the same problem, some niote.

Others are disappointed Google wasn't "more disruptive" of the retail pricing regime, or the lack of multi-touch support for the screen (an input capability using input from two fingers, used to enlarge a section of the screen image by pinching or sweeping the touch points apart or together.

Despite the "earned media buzz," Nexus One's first-week sales appear to fall far short of sales of the Apple iPhone, for example. Flurry estimates the iPhone sold more than a million units in three days when first introduced, and 1.6 million units in its first full week,  while the Nexus One might have sold only 20,000 units.

The Verizon Droid sold 250,000 units the first week it was available, while the HTC "myTouch" sold 60,000 units in its first week of availability.

To be sure, Nexus One, myTouch and Droid all are available on just a single network in a single coutnry. The iPhone initially was available in eight countries and eight carriers.

That's no coincidence. After the iPhone hype, it is proving more difficult for each competing device to illustrate how it is similarly "revolutionary." There's just no way to get around the fact that the iPhone was revolutionary, and so far, the other devices, though unique in many wasy, simply are following in the general mode.

Apple might have seized such a mindshare lead that there simply is no way any other device can "challenge" iPhone. That isn't to say many other touchscreen smartphones will fail to be built and marketed, but simply that the "buzz" hasn't been matched by the same sort of enthusiastic consumer resposne as the iPhone received, simply because no subsequent device, so far, as proven to be such an advance over the earlier generation of devices.

So far, all the other models are "like the iPhone." So far, that hasn't been enough. That's one reason why at least a few of us might think the challenge for all the other devices is to create a unique identity in the market, not to "be the next iPhone." That probably cannot be done at this point.

What device promoters can do is what Research in Motion achieved with th BlackBerry. RIM created an email-optimized device that syncs seamlessly with key Microsoft applications such as "Outlook," in additiion to handling email, capturing a specific segment of the mobile device market and end user base (business users).

But there's more to it than just that. The mobile is a mass market retail business, where marketing, distribution and customer support all matter. As much earned media attention as Nexus One has gotten, it is nothing like what Verizon was apparently able to do with a huge marketing and advertising blitz for its "Droid," or what Apple was able to do, not just with its own earned media campaign, but with a follow-on marketing campaign and network of highly-trafficked retail locations.

The Nexus One is being sold through a Web site, with only earned media support. Verizon launched a $100 million on marketing blitz, including the key Christmas selling season. Suffice it to say many many millions more people know the name "Droid" than "Nexus One."

T-Mobile, whose currernt role in the Nexus One ecosysem is largely indirect, does not appear to have supported the Nexus One launch with its own marketing funds, though it did for the myTouch.

Also, with a few new Android devices now competing for attention, there may be some fragmentation of the message. There's just one iPhone; there are several Android smartphones.

Also, Google might not have priced the device at levels that would drive more volume, though it also is battling the known resistance most end users have to paying $500 or more for an "unlocked" smartphone that only works on one U.S. network (with full access to all the frequency bands) anyway. What does "unlocked" mean to most consumers when the device can only be used on one network?

Beyond that, there is the simple fact that device hype likely outstrips ability to deliver, at this point. Everybody is looking for the first true "iPhone competitor." That might be asking too much.

http://blog.flurry.com/bid/29658/Flurry-Special-Report-Google-Nexus-One-Launch-Week-Sales

Is Nexus One A Particular Threat to Service Providers?

Does Google's Nexus One launch mean anything in particular for mobile service providers? That might be a matter of some debate at the moment. Some observers were expecting something "more disruptive." Perhaps an ad-supported voice service; maybe a completely unlocked device able to work on any carrier's network; maybe a business model that clearly delineates a new role for the handset provider.

That didn't happen. Some observers think the bigger innovation is the way Google is selling from a
Web site. Some might see too much difference there, either. Selling from a Web site isn't too unusual these days, and Apple's retail stores and existing carrier Web sites.already provide models for handset distribution aside from the branded mobile carrier stores.

To be sure, an "unlocked handset" strategy always will be tough in the U.S. market until such time as most carriers are using one single air interface and handsets are equipped with enough frequency agility to adapt to whatever network si providing access. An unlocked handset today means a choice of no more than one or two major carriers (one WiMAX, two CDMA and two GSM).

The other angle is that U.S. consumers have not yet shown any desire to pay full retail price for a handset, when they can get a subsidized device at the price of a two-year contract. People might gripe about the existence of contracts, but they have choices. They can pay full retail for their devices and avoid the contracts. Not many make that choice.

The more interesting observation is about what various Android devices really are. A BlackBerry is an email device; an iPhone is a Web surfing device. Many feature phones are texting devices. Some models are social networking devices, or at least highly optimized for that purpose. Some devices are optimized for navigation.

Could a new niche be developing for a "search" device? Is "finding stuff" a sufficiently robust need that at least one of the Android devices becomes recognized as the single best device for finding things? That seems to me the most interesting question about what the Nexus One or broader family of Android devices might raise.

Matters always can change, but at least for the moment, it does not appear the Nexus One is especially disruptive of the existing mobile business model or standard practices, either.

http://connectedplanetonline.com/mobile-apps/news/googles-nexus-effects-0115/?imw=Y

Android Bumps BlackBerry Traffic in December, TechWeb Says

In just two months, Android has emerged as the second most popular platform used to access InformationWeek’s mobile web site, pushing aside BlackBerry and taking a meaningful bite out of Apple’s iPhone share of traffic, says Tom Smith, TechWeb VP.

In November 2009, Android accounted for eight percent of mobile page views at TechWeb, compared to 59 percent for Apple and 17 percent for Blackberry, says Smith.

In December, though, Android did far better. Apple had 51 percent share; Android 24 percent; Blackberry eight percent, he says.

"To varying degrees, the trends are holding up across other sites in our network as well, but those sites don’t have the same level of visitor activity as mobile.informationweek.com so the numbers above are the strongest indicator we have of Droid’s impact," says Smith.

Smith thinks it was the Verizon launch of the Droid that caused the surge in mobile activity. "We saw a spike in usage of our mobile sites in December, when Droid activity truly took off," he says.

Android appears to be making what had been a two-horse race in smartphones into a three-horse contest, with the previous number two, Research in Motion, being pushed back to third place.

Though impressionistic, the data is in line with what other recent studies suggest, namely that the Android operating system hit some sort of inflection point in December 2009.

Is Android Finally at an Inflection Point?

The Android seems to have hit a sales inflection point, and is poised to take share in the smartphone market, according to ChangeWave Research.

More buyers now are indicating they will be buying Android devices, and fewer say they will be buying an iPhone. In September 2009 about six percent of respondents to 21 percent of respondents to a recent ChangeWave Research survey.

At the same time, where 32 percent of respondents said they would be buying an iPhone in September, 28 percent said they would be doing so in the December 2009 survey.

The ChangeWave Research data suggests that Android has hit an inflection point, after roughly a year on the market, a time when some observers might have wondered whether Android would emerge as a viable alternative to the iPhone.

The ChangeWave survey also suggests that the Android is taking share from other devices as well, with the possible exception of the BlackBerry. Where 17 percent of respondents said they would be buying a BlackBerry in September, about 18 percent said they would be doing so in December.

But Windows Mobile buying intentions were about nine percent in September and had dropped to six percent by December. Likewise, about six percent of respondents suggested they would be buying a Palm OS device in September; just three percent in December.

Apple And Android Dominate U.S. Smartphone Web Traffic

It is starting to look like just two smartphone platforms "matter" where it comes to use of the mobile Web: the Apple iPhone and the Android devices, a new analysis by AdMob suggests.

AdMob’s October, 2009 measurements show that the iPhone/iPod Touch and Android phones account for 75 percent of mobile Web traffic in the United States.

Apple devices continue to dominate, with 55 percent share, but Android users in October represented 20 percent of all activity, up from 17 percent in September, 2009.

The iPhone and iPod Touch grew their share from 48 percent to 55 percent share over the same period.

The Blackberry ’s mobile Web traffic share went down from 14 percent to 12 percent, and Palm’s webOS shrank from 10 percent to five percent.

On a global basis, the iPhone operating system now accounts for 50 percent of all mobile traffic, up from 43 percent the month before.

Android has an 11 percent global share, which makes it third globally after Nokia/Symbian’s 25 percent share.

Since Verizon launched the Droid about two weeks ago, Droids now make up 24 percent of all Android mobile Web traffic. The HTC Dream, which is the oldest Android device on the market, is the only Android device with more share, at 36 percent of Android traffic. Give it a few more weeks. The Droid is shaping up to be the most-popular Android device so far.

The data suggests that the BlackBerry, though a worthy enterprise device, continues to lag as a smartphone choice for users whose key applications lean to the Web.

Surprising Smartphone Statistics?

I don't know about you, but I found this bit of data on smartphone use surprising.  According to Nielsen, when looking at smartphone use with a baseline of 100, smartphone users  disproportionately tend to be 18 to 34 years old. 


One wonders what happened to the BlackBerry users between the ages of 35 and 54, whom one might think are over-represented among the ranks of smartphone users. 


Granted, this is an index with 100 as baseline, so it is more an example of "over-indexing" among some segments, but the findings still surprised me.


That was especially surprising given the over-indexing of smartphone used at least in part for business purposes. 


While smartphone usage is shifting from purely business use to both personal and business use, owners are still more than two times as likely to own a smartphone for business usage only.  


The study also suggests smartphone owners continue to be predominantly male, are 65 percent more likely than the average mobile subscriber to be between the ages of 25 and 34, and nearly two times as likely to make more than $100,000 a year.

Smartphone Niches Emerging

Data from ChangeWave about smartphone preferences might suggest both the existence of clear smartphone segments as well as an evolution of those segments.

By definition, all smartphones handle voice and text. Beyond that, there seem to be distinct user niches.

One might characterize the Palm user as someone whose unique application is the "organizer."

One might characterize the BlackBerry user as oriented to email, and the iPhone owner as oriented to Web-delivered applications.

Looked at this way, the Changewave data might suggest that the value proposition for the email-focused remains steady, but that the value of "organizer" functions is receding, while mobile Web is growing. We also have seen the introduction recently of devices organized around social networking and navigation, so the number of smartphone niches addressed by particular devices seems to be growing.

The Palm Pre and Motorola Cliq are among new devices pitched at the social networking niche. Garmin's nuvifone is perhaps the best example of a navigation-focused smartphone. So the obvious big question is how the growing raft of Android-based smartphones will contribute to the proliferation of devices with a lead application mode.

How demand for the Droid will shape up is hard to say at the moment. Some fragmentary data suggests that Droid users access the Web even more than iPhone users do. But its turn-by-turn navigation features might also emerge as a key drawing point.

Verizon Droid Launches Today

Verizon Wireless has launched two Android-powered smartphones Nov. 6, 2009. At the top, the much-anticipated Droid retails at $199.99 and is the first Android smartphone to feature the version 2.0 platform.

But Verizon also launched a second Droid-branded device, called Eris and manufactured by HTC. Eris will retail at $99.99.

A successful launch is regarded by many as critical to Motorola's future success, as the company attempts to regain market share.

Verizon also launched a number of other handsets, including the new BlackBerry Curve 8530 (already offered by Sprint), a new LG Chocolate device, and Samsung's Push-To-Talk Convoy.

Droid will the most-important launch, for several reasons. The success of its Android phones is crucial for Motorola if it is to climb back into the top ranks of handset manufacturers. It would be fair at this point to say Android is a "do or die" move for Motorola.

For HTC, the device is less important than the fact that HTC now is trying to build its own brand name, growing beyond its contract manufacturing roots.

People Don't Buy Smartphones, They Buy the Experience and the Feeling

All engineering involves choices, and that is true of all smartphone design as well.

Perhaps one of the background pressures is the desire to create devices that perform reasonably across a range of functions.

But that might not be a formula for success. A recent study by Interpret might suggest that instead of balancing features, it might be better to "unbalance" and produce a device that is demonstrably better at one thing.

Though one can argue we are early in the adoption cycle, a panel of consumers indicated that the Palm Pre made them feel "smart," "trendy, hop or cool," and "productive" within some range of acceptance for a smartphone device.

The problem would seem to be that Pre scores highest on the emotional attribute that users say is least important of the top three. The Pre produces emotions on the "hip" and "productive" scale that make it analogous to the BlackBerry Storm.

The bigger problem is that the Pre does not produce unusually high key emotions on any of the top three most important measures smartphone buyers say are important to them. BlackBerry and iPhone probably are the best models. Each of them scores unusually high on at least one of the three key emotional drivers smartphone buyers say motivate them.

So maybe designers should forget "balance." So far, no single smartphone unit scores unusually high on the "it makes me feel smart" measure. The iPhone owns the "hip, cool, trendy" space. The BlackBerry owns the "it makes me feel productive" niche.

Smartphones are bought because of the "feelings" they produce, not the features they provide. As the saying goes, smartphones "sell an experience."

Smartphones are Changing the Wi-Fi Hotspot Business

Smartphones are changing the nature of the hotspot business, it now appears. Originally envisioned as a way to provide "outside the home" and "outside the office" connections for laptop and notebook PC users, hotspots now are becoming important sources of broadband connections for smartphones.

One example: iPass, which used to focus on managing PC authentication processes for traveling enterprise workers, now finds it is focusing more attention on managing authentication processes for enterprise smartphones, says Rick Bilodeau iPass VP.

"Smartphones are the new thing," he says. "Now it is smartphones and Blackberries." The software is available for BlackBerry, Symbian and iPhone at the moment, and iPass is watching the Android, though it hasn't seen enterprise demand for that device yet.

As a firm that manages broadband access for hundreds of Fortune 2000 companies, iPass has to manage connections created on hundreds of global networks, but now scores of smartphone devices as well.

To make that process easier, it created an "Open Device Framework," a standardized interface to iPass client software that allows enterprises to write their own XML scripts for the specific dongles, phones and other devices they want to support.

The company also now preconfigures Mi-Fi routers, loading SSID information directly into the boxes before they are delivered to their users, for example. The iPass log-on software also can be preloaded. "We're first to do this, we think," says Bilodeau.

ODF is available now and the Mi-Fi featuers will be available in December 2009, he says.

BlackBerry and iPhone Users are Different, Just Not Wildly So

BlackBerry users are different from iPhone users, a new study by Retrevo Gadgetology suggests. Some of the differences are amusing, perhaps intentionally so, as the questions asked of younger BlackBerry and iPhone users included some that observers might find frivolous, or intended to evoke humorous responses.

Apple iPhone say they find cool gadgets, “most attractive,” about a person, in fact, three times more than they find a college degree attractive.

BlackBerry owners think a college degree is more attractive than the mobile device they use.

About 34 percent of iPhone owners and 29 percent of BlackBerry owners think old gadgets on a potential partner are a turn off. Some 33 percent of iPhone owners say they have broken up with someone  using text messaging, compared to 22 percent of BlackBerry users.

A quarter of iPhone users say they have broken off a relationship because their partner spent too much time on their mobile, compared to 17 percent of BlackBerry users.

The Retrevo Gadgetology report surveyed 445 iPhone and BlackBerry owners distributed across gender, age, income and location in the United States.

iPhone, BlackBerry Downloads: Different Pattern?

Games lead iPhone app downloads, comScore reports. Nearly half of the the 25 most popular mobile apps are games. Among non-gaming applications, social networking applications: Facebook and MySpace Mobile also can be found. So far, at least, the iPhone, though used by business end users, does not seem to have broken out of its "consumer" appeal base.

Research in Motion's BlackBerry App World has not been in operation long enough to determine whether BlackBerry users behave differently, but at least initially, one suspects that social networking apps are among the top 10, whether that is Facebook or instant messaging clients. One perhaps notable difference is downloads of the Opera Mini browser, for perhaps-obvious reasons. BlackBerry users tend not to rave about the default BlackBerry browser.

http://ir.comscore.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=375787

iPhone 2nd Best Selling Smart phone in Q4

Smart mobile device shipments hit 118 million in 2007, up 53 percent over 2006, reports Canalys. In the fourth quarter, newcomer Apple shipped the third most devices globally. Nokia remained the global market leader, shipping 60.5 million smart phones.

Research in Motion shipments grew 112 percent year-over-year to 12.2 million, to take second place.

Symbian remains the operating system leader, with 67 percent share, followed by Microsoft with 13 percent, with RIM on 10 percent. Apple garnered seven percent while Linux had five percent share.

High-end devices represented around 10 percent of the global mobile phone market by units in 2007, with annual growth of 60 percent.

Apple’s entry into this market in 2007 with the iPhone sparked a lot of media attention and speculation about how much it could disrupt the status quo and take share away from companies such as Nokia, RIM, Palm and Motorola. “When you consider that it launched part way through the year, with limited operator and country coverage, and essentially just one product, Apple has shown very clearly that it can make a difference and has sent a wakeup call to the market leaders,” said Pete Cunningham, Canalys senior analyst. “What it must demonstrate now is that it can build a sustainable business in the converged device space, expanding its coverage and product portfolio. It will also need to ensure that the exclusive relationships that got it so far so quickly do not prove to be a limit on what it can achieve. Apple’s innovation in its mobile phone user interface has prompted a lot of design activity among competitors. We saw the beginnings of that in 2007, but we will see a lot more in 2008 as other smart phone vendors try to catch up and then get back in front. Experience shows that a vendor with only one smart phone design, no matter how good that design is, will soon struggle. A broad, continually refreshed portfolio is needed to retain and grow share in this dynamic market. This race is a marathon, but you pretty much have to sprint every lap.”

Canalys estimates that Apple took 28% share of the fast growing US converged device market in Q4 2007, behind RIM’s 41%, but a long way ahead of third placed Palm on 9%. This was also enough to put Apple ahead of all Windows Mobile device vendors combined, whose share was 21% in the quarter according to Canalys figures. In EMEA, where the iPhone officially launched part way through the quarter in only three countries, Apple took fifth spot behind Nokia, RIM, HTC and Motorola, but ahead of several established smart phone providers such as Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Palm.

For the full year 2007, as in 2006, the Asia Pacific region was the biggest in volume terms for converged device shipments. Apple has of course not yet launched the iPhone in the region, and many vendors who are successful in other parts of the world, such as RIM and Palm, have also made relatively little impact there so far. Nokia continues to lead in the region, with more than 50% share in converged devices, ahead of Japanese smart phone vendors Sharp and Fujitsu. Motorola, despite enjoying fourth place, has seen its Linux-based smart phone shipments in the region fall 28% from their high in 2006.

Symbian led in the Asia-Pacific (85 percent) and Europe-Middle East-Africa regions (80 percent) while in North America RIM was the clear leader on 42 percent smart phone share, ahead of Apple at 27 percent and Microsoft at 21 percent.

Slow Email? BlackBerry Outage

Research In Motion Ltd. says an outage left users in North America without access to their BlackBerry email service on Monday, beginning about 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard time and lasting about three hours.

RIM says no messages were lost during the incident, which caused intermittent delivery delays. No explanation for the outage has been given.

Outages of this sort are the reason many of us are giving more thought to backup and redundancy strategies. On a recent business trip, for the first time in my life, I accidentally left my laptop at home, and was going to be gone for 14 days. True, I had the BlackBerry and another mobile as well.

But in my line of work access to the Web is arguably more important than either of those two sorts of devices, as important as they are. Because of Google Documents & Spreadsheets and Google Broswer Sync, I was able to keep working using public terminals and loaned machines, with access to Microsoft Office.

I also learned to live without access to Outlook for a bit. The BlackBerry helped, of course. The lasting change so far is that I have kept using Google Documents more than I have in the past. That's why sampling is so important. Behavior can change.

BlackBerry Consumer Push

Research In Motion's move into the retail consumer market, including lifestyle features such as television, music players, cameras and Facebook social-networking software, is a good thing for consumers. That that includes a goodly number of professionals and workers who use email a lot for work.

Obviously a consumer device has to be priced lower than a "business class" device. But one thing I do notice, as a "business" BlackBerry user, is that the keyboards being supplied on devices such as the Pearl and Curve have a distinctly unpleasant feel. RIM might be doing this on purpose, but the feel of the keyboard is as important to this user as the keyboard is on a PC.

Every other element of the experience is outweighed by this one fact. Again, RIM might be doing that on purpose, to differentiate the market segments each device appeals to. If so, it's working. The 8800 class of devices are the only ones with a tactile experience I can tolerate. That's one way to create differentiation of user experience, I will say.

The omission of cameras and so forth also are design features intended to make the 8800 appeal to enterprises. But sometimes it comes down to other simple features. Like the feel of a keyboard.

Easier BlackBerry Use

It's going to be easier to read and respond to text, attachments and image-formatted documents on Research in Motion BlackBerries sometime later this year. RIM says it will upgrade its software so users can edit documents directly from the device and to view messages in their original formatting. That sort of functionality is obvious on Windows Mobile devices, so RIM has to keep pace. Apple's growing presence and market share also might be an issue, as the "easy to use, the whole Web" philosophy has got to be changing user expectations about what they ought to be able to do, and how, on their smart phones.

In the third quarter of 2007, Apple captured 20 percent of all U.S. smart phone shipments, Gartner Inc. says. RIM got 39 percent.

Raketu Launches VoIP over BlackBerry

Raketu has launched a new peer-to-peer VoIP application designed to run on Research in Motion Blackberries. The app furthermore is intended to be used by enterprise, small and mid-sized business users.

Raketu does not require a client download and is accessed from the BlackBerry's Web browser at www.BlackBerry.raketu.com.

The application obviously will make most sense for business users who need to send and receive text messages from international locations, as well as users who need voice communications in a global context.