Success of the 9530 will be solely based on two (maybe 3 things):
1. Touchscreen: has to be equally or better than the iPhone's multi-touch (can't deny that the functionality of it is pretty smooth) 2. Touch QWERTY keyboard: arguably, the iPhone's touch keyboard was difficult to use to some users (specifically those who have become very familiar with a physical QWERTY keyboard). RIM has advertised that the keyboard will act and feel like a physical keyboard - lets hope they provide a product to back that claim up 3. Operating System: can't argue on having a mobile version of MacOSX. So far, RIM's 4.2, 4.5 and 4.6 OS's don't really contribute to a consumer feel, rather it still makes it feel like a enterprise, messaging device. Hopefully RIM steers away from those OS's and possibly introduce a whole new OS aimed specifically at consumers.
If RIM can nail those (as best they can or as advertised) they might really be a serious competitor to the iPhone.
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Success of the 9530 will be solely based on two (maybe 3 things):
1. Touchscreen: has to be equally or better than the iPhone's multi-touch (can't deny that the functionality of it is pretty smooth)
2. Touch QWERTY keyboard: arguably, the iPhone's touch keyboard was difficult to use to some users (specifically those who have become very familiar with a physical QWERTY keyboard). RIM has advertised that the keyboard will act and feel like a physical keyboard - lets hope they provide a product to back that claim up
3. Operating System: can't argue on having a mobile version of MacOSX. So far, RIM's 4.2, 4.5 and 4.6 OS's don't really contribute to a consumer feel, rather it still makes it feel like a enterprise, messaging device. Hopefully RIM steers away from those OS's and possibly introduce a whole new OS aimed specifically at consumers.
If RIM can nail those (as best they can or as advertised) they might really be a serious competitor to the iPhone.
'Course, RIM is _already_ outperforming Apple/iPhone:
* More sales, even in the USA (worldwide, neither RIM nor Apple are significant compared to Symbian) - see: http://www.intomobile.com/2008/09/10/report-shows-the-busiest-browsing-handsets.html
* More features (e.g. better cameras w/video recording, a real bluetooth stack w/tethering, a2dp, etc..) - see: http://www.iphonebuzz.com/iphones-bluetooth-is-dumb-purposely-crippled-or-both-151188.php
* J2ME - supports thousands of standard mobile applications (such as AmazeGPS for voice navigation, Skype, etc) - the iPhone only supports specific applications that are "blessed" through Apple's iTunes store.