I can see it now, the new Mac vs. PC commercial need a makeover. The new commercials will be the iPhone vs. the Berry. I’m not sure who will replace John Hodgman as the PC, but I think dipping into the Daily Show well again and selecting Aasif Mandvi would be a great choice.
The commercials would be largely scripted the same. The capable, but frumpy Blackberry would talk about the features it wished it had and the iPhone will be surprised that these features are not standard on all phones. Casts of other characters could play popular applications available for the iPhone and not available on the Berry. That could even be the name of the Blackberry character, “Berry.” Of course just like the PC commercials, the Berry would crash periodically and need to be rebooted by yanking the battery.
These commercials, of course, are largely consumer focused, but isn’t that the point? Apple will get adoption at the grass roots level and then corporations will have to figure out how to support these phones with limited security and application management solutions. But at the end of the day, what CIO is going to tell the CEO that he can’t use the coolest phone on the block? Even the Secret Service had to bow to the wishes of President Obama to allow him to carry a PDA. (Of course, he is using a specially modified Blackberry with enhanced security software installed.)
While Blackberry still rules with about double the market share over the iPhone, their dominance is on shaky ground. A few extra features and and additional carriers and Apple can make a serious run at the dominant slot for corporate communications. Security, centralized management and true multi-tasking are key for corporations to adopt the iPhone. But these are things that can be added within a year. Now that Apple has mind-share, and the consumer market waiting for each iteration, RIM had better watch out.
Tags: apple, blackberry, iphone, mac vs. pc commercial
