The BlackBerry smartphone was once closely associated with the professional lifestyle – the phone of choice for executives and those with demanding workloads needing to stay in touch on the move.
A recent article in The Guardian newspaper, however, suggests that the BlackBerry is becoming increasingly popular with teenagers.
While many young people admit Apple’s iPhone is better for music than Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, a combination of price and strong messaging features gives BlackBerry the edge as the preferred smartphone for this audience.
In an opinion piece written by a student, one of the reasons for BlackBerry becoming more popular in the mainstream was price – the smartphone is often available for less on a monthly contract and without paying for the handset, compared to the iPhone. In the article, the author writes: “As a student, I know most of us are strapped for cash 99% of the time. So another reason for choosing a BlackBerry was the reasonable price. Although the iPhone is similar to the BlackBerry the price is much higher, which for me was the deal breaker. My BlackBerry costs £25 per month which gives me free internet, free texts and 500 minutes of calls. The iPhone costs more than £30 per month and you usually have to pay for the phone itself, which can be another £200-300.”
BlackBerry deals also come with BlackBerry Messenger included, a service which lets you send messages to your friends for free. This is cited as another reason for RIM being able to have success with its smartphone in the mainstream market and not purely with business people.
With smaller and less traditional BlackBerry handsets being made available, such as the BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105 model, the appeal to a younger audience is likely to get stronger. The 9105 smartphone is the first BlackBerry not to feature a QWERTY or non-QWERTY keyboard but an alphanumerical keypad instead. And Pearl 3G 9105 deals start from as little as £20 a month on Vodafone that includes 600 minutes and unlimited texts, on a two-year contract.
Do you agree with the article’s findings? Would you choose a BlackBerry over an iPhone or Android smartphone? We’d love to hear your views.
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