[bigboybkrises]

In response to the NYtimes article that said that Blackberry's are now the black sheep of modern times, do you think that since the rise of popularity of smartphones have caused many people to only be attracted to the name of a product in this case a smartphone instead of its uses besides apps?

For instance many people are saying the Galaxy S3 is better than the Iphone 5, but really what noticeable performance difference in the iphone from the galaxy s3 phone. I get tired of seeing all of these this smartphone is better than this one because it has NFC and this phone doesn't.
Do people actually use these smartphones to their full potential, or just have it for a fashion statement?

I would like to know what people think are majority of smartphone users dumb instead of know what they're buying.

[adamschuetze]

(A) I'd venture a guess that marketing has a great deal to do with people's choice of a smartphone.

(B) Perhaps an even bigger influence is the tendency to buy into a platform that is already popular, which makes it more popular in turn, which attracts more users, and ... well you get the idea.

I expect that (B) results from a good application of (A).

(A) implies that people are inherently stupid and will believe whatever they are told by shiny advertisements that imply you're not cool until you buy <insert product>, and (B) implies that people are inherently followers who can't think for themselves. Neither are good reflections on people in general. Sadly I think they're both the case.

Which is why I hope that advertisements for BB10 will actually show what BB10 can do, as opposed to some vague insinuation that you're not a "person who does" if you don't have a new BlackBerry. Win people with what the device can do, how awesome it is. Don't insult them for their choices.

[eve6er69]

Marketing skills. Make people want your device by saying key phrases in your commercials. In sales they called them power words.

[cfx_will]

I believe it's not that people actually use the features, they would rather have a feature just in case rather than not able to use it. Many apps are not used much but for those frequent times, the apps seem to be very handy and useful. Same goes with features in phones. I don't really mind that my phone does not have tilt-to-zoom (Samsung touch wiz) but it would be nice to have as well.

[Majestic Lion]

Look up Edward Bernays.

Smartphones didn't make people dumber. People made people dumber.

[TheScionicMan]

After supporting 100+ users, I've seen a lot of people default to the iPhone and aren't happy with it. At the time we opened up the option for the iPhone, the RIM alternative was the 9650. Since most people missed the OS7 change and with all of the RIM doom and gloom news, as people have come up for upgrade, they've gone for the iPhone. Leaving the office tonight, I had a user tell me how he's not too happy with his iphone and misses his BB. With some personnel changes recently, I have a couple of 9930s available as well as a few iphone4s, so I am now able to let people try both before deciding. My boss strongly urged everyone to try before selecting, but it's obvious from usage that many people just assumed the iPhone was better due to it's "popularity". I may see about swapping that guy out with a 9930. There's a good percentage of iPhone users that I'm sure would be better suited with a BB.

I think RIM has a good opportunity to pull many of these users back.

[cgk]

Just believe it's all down to marketing, pull the covers back over your head and go back to sleep.

[NFLPLAYBOOK]

I wouldn't call most people dumb. I think they are mostly uninformed. Most people don't research or spend any time on the technical points of mobile devices or how to use them. This is why Apple has been so popular. They make it easy to use the features of a smartphone without having to put out any effort to learn what they are doing. This isn't exclusive to smartphones. Most are the same way with computers as well.

[Masahiro]

The same applies for any consumer goods we buy. It's called marketing and branding. Big corporations these days have it down to a science.

[skyrocket9]

Smartphones of today are not the same thing as in 2008. They are made for heavy data consumption, i.e browsing.

Most wireless companies make all their money from hefty data plans, so naturally they will advertise/sell/promote whatever consumes the most data.

In 2007/8 you had a 250mb-1gb plan for emails and other basic stuff. Today you get 6gb+ for god knows what.

On a blackberry you won't come close to 500mb unless you use it as a tether. A galaxy S3 consumes 1gb of data a month just sitting there with all those crazy widget, I know I had one so do not tell me it doesn't.

Anyway, people have changed too since 2007/8. And by nature people always want the best of what is available regardless if they need or can use it. The point is, if you build it they will come!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[madman0141]

Advertising and Marketing are the reasons. You don't really believe that the 20 something girl who looks better than a supermodel knows anything about her smart phone.