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Jul. 14, 2009

Wireless industry analyst Jeff Kagan is starting to think that the BlackBerry could be on its way out, at least now we all know it's getting some very serious competition from the likes of the iPhone, the Palm Pre, HTC, the Android Phone and a few others.

Of course, not everybody agrees.

But Kagan is saying "overall, the BlackBerry has not been reinvented in many years. The new devices, like the BlackBerry Bold and the Storm are better than previous versions with many features, and they have shown some growth over the last 6 months. But during the last month or two, that is slowing down quite a bit."

Kagan was referring to the recent releases of the iPhone 3G S and Palm Pre as possible reasons for lagging BlackBerry sales.

"The Apple iPhone and the Palm Pre are reinventing the industry with many features. I have not seen that kind of advance from the BlackBerry line," Kagan said.

The Tour, available through Verizon Wireless and Sprint, comes in two different models that sell for the same price, both with or without a camera.

Most notable, neither version has Wi-Fi. While the physical specs are an almost identical match to those of the BlackBerry Storm, the Tour doesn't have a touch screen either.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) is seen as the king of OEMs in the enterprise space, offering top-notch e-mail and security, but many think it's time for RIM to start broadening its demographic and begin innovating more for the consumer market.

However, Kagan doesn't count RIM out either, although some might be led to believe so. "They have too many happy business customers. Perhaps RIM is working on some hot new technology and we will see it soon."

"I think RIM is facing an important moment as the industry continues to change and mature constantly. We have not seen anything earth-shaking coming out of RIM in a while," Kagan said.

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Source: JHBN.