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Released: July 24, 2011

Worthy rivals for the crown in smartphones

Source: James B. Stewart, The New York Times

Is Apple’s dominance insurmountable? Just over two years ago, when I was shopping for a new phone, nothing seemed close to rivaling the iPhone. It was available exclusively to AT&T customers, so I reluctantly settled on a BlackBerry model (the Pearl) available to Verizon subscribers like me. A few weeks ago, I had to ask directions to a restaurant from a young woman I spotted on the street using an iPhone. She quickly obliged by producing an easy-to-read Google map while the Pearl, whose tiny screen made it all but useless for Web browsing and navigation, languished in my pocket. Apple ended AT&T’s exclusivity earlier this year, and this month I was eligible for an upgrade to a new device. During the years since I’d bought the Pearl, an array of new devices using the Google Android operating system had appeared, and Research in Motion had introduced several new BlackBerry models. Limiting the original iPhone to AT&T subscribers brought Apple lucrative payments from AT&T and heightened the device’s aura of exclusivity. But I wondered: had Apple waited too long, given the pace of change in the industry, allowing Android and RIM devices to catch up, or even move ahead? I decided to compare three rival mobile devices: the iPhone 4, and Android and BlackBerry models.

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