The battle of the smartphones

As the smartphone debate goes on over iPhone versus BlackBerry I find myself wondering who will win the battle for the prosumer market.

I wanted to look at some stats to see if any clear trend is emerging and I found that, according to IDC , Apple's share of the smartphone market declined in the first quarter to 19.2% from 26.7% in the prior quarter and much of that slack was taken up by RIM's BlackBerry which comprised 44.5% of the market in the first quarter versus 35.1% the previous quarter.

Now, one could argue that this situation could reverse going forward given the new version of the iPhone that came out with more features, at a better price which makes these numbers inconclusive in terms of future trends.

I have done some "social research" on this subject as well, asking a cross section of SF event goers why they prefer, or should I say, LOVE their chosen device and it seems that iPhone users care more about the cool-ness factor and Blackberry users are more concerned with practicality.

There might be some predictive value in finding some global prosumer stats on how many people view themselves as cool vesus how many feel that they are practical and we assume that people use their devices as a form of self expression.

For now, I will just continue my research and base my opinion on the fact that I prefer BlackBerry....... though I may at some point be swayed by the cool- factor of the iPhone.