Blackberry Curve outsells iPhone in Q1 | Hacker News Reader

Blackberry Curve outsells iPhone in Q1

news.cnet.com

21 pointsstcredzero14 comments

As someone who owns a Curve (and whose girlfriend has an iPhone 3G), I must say that I'm very happy with my choice. I definitely prefer the physical keyboard, one inbox for SMS/email, a bright flash for the camera (although picture quality is markedly worse), and I much prefer navigating with the trackball in most applications, including the browser. The iPhone has much better media features (some would say the Curve essentially has none) and complete web rendering is damn nice, but I find the BlackBerry experience satisfactory, and I haven't even seen a Bold in action. HN renders just fine, thankfully.

The App Store is a huge thorn in RIM's side. The Maps app is much better suited for the iPhone than the BlackBerry. Just a few months ago, my gf and I were trying to navigate around Boston (in a car) and her iPhone came to the rescue. It tears me up that AT&T has both the Bold and the iPhone, but if Verizon gets the (full-featured) iPhone, I might not defect.

Another factor is simply price: the Curve on T-mobile (US) with equivalent voice/data service can be $20-$30 cheaper per month than iPhone on AT&T, even though the devices both retail for about $200 initially.

Very true. Best Buy is selling the 8330 (Verizon's Curve) for $39 this week (at least in NY); even on an off week, it's normally $100 there, which is a comparatively low barrier to entry into the smartphone market. I've seen 5 of my friends get Curves in the last 6 months.

I predicted it!

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=264246

Well, it's probably not an influx of disappointed iPhone users so much as Blackberry grabbing a greater share of non-smartphone (dumbphone?) users than iPhone.

If you're a happy T-Mobile user, for instance, and you want to upgrade without switching to AT&T, iPhone isn't an option.

Not the dumbphone market, it's the business market. This phone only eats into Apple's iPhone business from the biz side, it's not a head-to-head.

Exclusive AT&T deal hurts Apple in this case but that will change soon.

It's not been just the business market in my experience. I know two people within the last two months who opted for the Curve over the iPhone.

"If you're a happy T-Mobile user, for instance, and you want to upgrade without switching to AT&T, iPhone isn't an option."

How does it compare to the G1? I'd guess the Curve has a stronger business focus.

As someone living in a foreign country, T-mobile's UMA feature is a huge win. Their international bberry data rates are great as well.

The UMA feature is underrated. Being able to SMS and make and receive phone calls wherever there is free Wi-Fi (now lots of places) or a T-Mobile HotSpot is fantastic. Definitely has a 'the future is here now' effect, for me at least.

I get that feeling from wireless printing.

More importantly, RIM has 3 of the top 5 spots.

Because AT&T charge Apple prices for service for the iPhone.

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