Even though Steve Jobs has been projecting Apple's (Nasdaq:AAPL) iPhone would make huge inroads into RIM's market, the reality is he's not really much closer than when he introduced the iPhone.
This doesn't mean the newest offering won't be a big success, it just won't be a big success in the big business market, as it will still be behind the Blackberry Bold when it comes out later this year.
It was telling that Jobs didn't use the Blackberry Bold when contrasting the download speeds of his new iPhone, rather he used an example of the Nokia N95, and Palm's Treo category. The reason why is the Bold will still outperform the new iPhone at about four times the download speed, according to Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek.
Misek said, "The reality is that if you compare the new 3G iPhone download speeds to RIM's Bold, the Bold will be able to download a website like Marketwatch.com in under five seconds, whereas the 3G iPhone will take 21 seconds.
"With 3G, RIM is going to showcase just how its technology is so much better. They specifically avoided mentioning the BlackBerry Bold. ... What [Mr. Jobs] has realized is that he hasn't dented RIM at all."
This probably irritates Jobs to no end, as he announced in January, 2007, at the Macworld Conference, that the iPhone would end up overtaking RIM and its products. That's not to say it'll never happen, but in the case of big business especially, RIM is still quite a bit ahead of Apple, and it'll take a lot longer than Jobs probably envisioned to replace RIM ... if they ever do.
Even so, the new price and increased speed, along with larger hard drive should help the company make inroads into the general consumer market. Of course the problem there is there isn't as much money to be made in the consumer market with smart phones as there is in the business market, as general markets want simplicity and lower prices, not all the bells and whistles associated with niche markets.
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