Winning Online

By Ralph Serra 

In late March of this year R.I.M. (research in motion) the makers of the Black Berry revealed the BlackBerry app world. This was essentially their spin on the app store that Apple offers for their iPhone. For BlackBerry users this opened a Pandora’s Box of possibilities. In the past there were a few applications that were available, now the app world puts an amalgamation of applications all in one place and allows you to pick what you want with ease.

In August, R.I.M. came out with their first upgrade for this new service. The two main components of this upgrade were that now you could archive your apps, and the selection of the apps was made extremely user friendly. Now the apps were categorized on several different criteria . The bottom line is that R.I.M. is making tremendous progress in terms of improving its appeal to users outside of business applications.

For BlackBerry it was not only an application issue, it was a brand identity issue. They were not flashy or trendy, and the average person really had no practical application for such a device. Now it seems that everyone is finding one reason or another to have a need for the internet at their fingertips. Furthermore it is now actually affordable to get a mobile device with a data plan. Things like social networking and fantasy sports have also become tremendously popular in our society and nobody wants to be out of the loop because they are not by a laptop or pc.

When the iPhone came out it caused a great deal of buzz. Not only could you browse the internet on this device, but the whole idea of selecting what applications you wanted your mobile device to have and essentially customizing it was novelty. The iPhone was also a full touch screen which added even more appeal. This was a setback for the BlackBerry, and really pushed R.I.M. to do something.

Their first attempt to try and take down the giant was the touch screen Storm. The Storm received mixed reviews and was not as successful as they would have liked it to be. Due to the fact that the touch screen Storm was not as popular as its rival the iPhone, the app world was going to be a heavy hitter for R.I.M. The first version was good, and gave BlackBerry users something to improve their device and how they used it. In August when the second version came out, it continued to build on the quality of the user’s experience. The app world is not quite as advanced as Apples app store, but it is a big step in the right direction for R.I.M. Black Berry users will continue to gain awareness and realize that their mobile devices have many of the same qualities of the iPhone. R.I.M. will lose some of the prior stigma that once surrounded the BlackBerry.

When you look at R.I.M.s two newest devices the BlackBerry tour and the BlackBerry bold, they are nearly identical in size to the iPhone. With the addition of the new app world upgrade, it can be argued that the only thing really setting the iPhone apart now from R.I.M.s devices are the interactive features the iPhone has. The BlackBerry is no longer a mobile device designed exclusively for corporate America.