Last quarter Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones ... 800-thousand more than RIM and that makes Apple the third largest mobile phone supplier. Add in sales of 2.6 million Macs and 11 million Ipods.. and Apple has $25 billion US in the bank.
If that's not enough, late last week J.D. Power and Associates says smartphone users surveyed put the iPhone on top with 778 points out of a possible 1000, Blackberry second at 703, and Samsung third with 701. Users rated, ease of operation, the operating system, physical design, features and battery power. Blackberry had the best battery system but Apple took the other categories. Kirk Parsons of JD Power said Apple "has exceeded customer expectations."
I had a chance to use the iPhone, the Rim Bold and the Palm Treo. The survey results are not a surprise. The iPhone was clearly the easiest to use. The Palm had some nasty glitches, for example, you hit the answer button for a call and sometimes the phone shuts off or the software locks up. JD Power found 34 percent of users say at least once a week they experience applications problems like I did and 44 percent of users boot their phone at least once a week. Parsons says manufactures had better work on reliability
Some Rogers iPhone customers recently had problems. All calls were going directly to voice mail. One user told me tech support said it was a 3G network problem and consumers were told to turn off 3G. Hummm, not what you want to hear when you bought an iPhone for its speed. Rogers now says it thinks it's solved the problem.
Smartphone sales now top sales of regular phones and the top 2 reason for buying a smartphone are to access the internet or get email. RIM's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis tells me that in his view the phone has "become an integral part of what we do at work and in the rest of our life and we won't give up communications."
Look for even more competition in phones. Christmas, a prime cell phone buying time is coming up. Nokia is battling to stay number one in market share they've lost 12 share points in the last year. Apple is the new number 2 and then RIM ( Canalys Research figures for 2008 third quarter ).
Web site of the week; www.spock.com One of several people search engines , can provide a different view of your personal footpint on the web.
This Sunday one of the stories on TECH NOW will be a look at Russia's love affair with illegal cell phones. And don't forget to check our website www.ctvottawa.ca.
