CRM - March 2009 - (Page 37)

CRM AND THE iPHONE Can Apple Ride Out the Storm? Research in Motion’s newest BlackBerry model was supposed to be the last hurdle to Apple’s smartphone hegemony omentum surrounding the release of the BlackBerry Storm—the first touchscreen device from Research in Motion (RIM)—was thunderous. Touted by many as “the iPhone killer,” the Storm launched in November—reportedly a mad dash to get the product out the door before “Black Friday” on November 28. Around the same time, the RIM folks released the BlackBerry Bold—a biggeryet-sleeker version of the traditional BlackBerry. Perhaps not surprisingly, sales of both the Storm and the Bold have failed to reach the iPhone’s level of public demand—or what many would call a craze. According to The Wall Street Journal, RIM sold about 500,000 Storms in that device’s first month on the market—and about the same number in its second. Not bad, but Apple sold a million 3G iPhones in just one weekend—to a marketplace that already had a goodly number of first-generation iPhones. Still, despite lower unit sales and talk of user frustration with the new touchscreen interface, BlackBerry and RIM are holding ground. According to Gartner, sales of BlackBerry smartphones increased close to 82 percent in the m third quarter of 2008. A December Gartner UK report states: “RIM continued to expand its presence within the consumer segment and refreshed its portfolio with new models and form factors. RIM sales will receive a boost from its new products in the fourth quarter. Analysts said the Storm is RIM’s most important product launch to date and has the potential to be a major product for the company.” In terms of smartphone market share, Gartner says RIM trails Nokia, but third-place Apple—growing 327 percent from 2007 to 2008—is nipping at RIM’s heels. The iPhone isn’t the only competitor BlackBerry has to worry about. Devices such as the Android and the Palm Pre will be clamoring for a piece of the smartphone pie. The BlackBerry model still remains heavily used and liked— and it probably doesn’t hurt that President Barack Obama loves his BlackBerry so much, he successfully fought to use one in the White House. The subsequent press coverage of that battle generated a level of free publicity for RIM that, according to an expert cited by The New York Times, was worth the equivalent of perhaps $25 million or $50 million in advertising. —Lauren McKay, with additional reporting by Joshua Weinberger don’t realize that Android isn’t tied to any particular hardware: Eventually, there will be dozens of Android-based phones. Don’t like your interface? Fine: Pick another. “The open nature of Android promises to have a lot of functionality,” he says. Despite opposing Apple’s rigidness, Android manufacturers (and makers of other phones) are more than happy to mimic the iPhone’s application platform: An “app store”for Android is already on tap— and so are ones for BlackBerry and for Palm’s highly anticipated Pre handheld, which was unveiled in January (though with an unspecified 2009 release date). Meeker says the iPhone has the “user lock-in”of any Apple product.“I can’t take the computer I love and put the Mac operating system on it—it’s the same thing with the phones.” Android developers can www.destinationCRM.com write one piece of software to operate on multiple phones. The Android app store has yet to reach scale, but Meeker calls the operating system powerful, more like a mini-computer than a cell phone. In the meantime, the iPhone continues to make noise. Even Wal-Mart wants a piece of the action, offering iPhones at a price point ($99) that makes clear the device is ready to expand beyond the tech-savvy early adopters and enter the mainstream. That means a rise in consumers using the device, B2B customers supplying it to their employees, and developers building applications for it. The expansion won’t come without a fight from competitors like the BlackBerry, the devices running Google’s Android operating system, and possibly the Palm Pre, but Apple may have made a beachhead for itself. Predictions aside, it will be interesting to see how the market plays out. Just think: A year ago, your only choice for obtaining that mouth-watering burrito was from actually waiting in line. Which brings us back to that burrito we started with. Chipotle was the forwardthinking chain that launched that iPhone app in January—only to yank it from the App Store almost immediately. The problem wasn’t a technical glitch with Apple—but with the popularity of the device and the application: Chipotle’s servers couldn’t handle the sudden explosion of traffic, forcing the company to remove the application and begin reworking a scalable version. Editorial Assistant Lauren McKay can be reached at lmckay@destinationCRM.com. 37 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | MARCH 2009 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - March 2009

CRM - March 2009 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Stay Tuned Stimulating Citizen Experience CRM on Twitter Retailers Face Reality Making Relationships Matter Required Reading We the People Innovation Nation CRM and the iPhone Looking to Score The Virtual Welcome Mat A Tough Transition Made Easier A Training Regimen Gets Rigorous A Battle Fought from Afar Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - March 2009

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