12% of early iPhone 3G buyers report ditching their BlackBerry

24567

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 137
    phalanxphalanx Posts: 109member
    It is just one data point.



    How many people went back to their Blackberry/other phone after trying the iPhone?

    How many of the million sold went to current iPhone owners?
  • Reply 22 of 137
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Actually, no. If the margin of error is, say +-x% and the proportion of respondents is y%, that would mean between (y+x)% and (y-x%). So, for example, if 55% said they would vote for a candidate in a poll with a margin of error of +-3%, that would mean between 52% and 58%.....



    I really didn't want to get into all of that.



    But it does end up with about the numbers I expressed. You don't have to get too technical about it. Simplicity is best here. We're not in class.
  • Reply 23 of 137
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I find lanscape mode very difficult to use. Much faster with portrait mode with my thumbs. I think that overall the typing is easier, since people I know with iPhones send much longer messages to me than people with other phones, but that is hardly evidence.



    See, this is interesting, because it's considered that the landscape physical keyboards are much easier to use than the portrait ones. The Pre was criticized in several reviews for going portrait rather than going landscape.



    You must have very short thumbs.
  • Reply 24 of 137
    virgil-tb2virgil-tb2 Posts: 1,416member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    While I find typing on the vertical keyboard to be fine. typing on the landscape one is much faster. In my case about twice as fast.



    Just for the data point, I find the opposite. In landscape I hit the spacebar an inordinate amount of the time instead of a letter and that cuts my speed down.



    To the OP: These kinds of things are always going to be subjective and dependant on the individuals talents and desires so asking which keyboard is faster is (probably) an unanswerable question.
  • Reply 25 of 137
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    We're not in class.



    Fair enough.



    But it really is quite important to note that there's a huge difference between 12% +-X%, and 12% +- (X% of 12%). And, in all fairness, since you had said that he was "misunderstanding the numbers," it is important to note that the original poster, markb, was interpreting the concept correctly (although he was calculating the number incorrectly, as I pointed out above).

  • Reply 26 of 137
    davidtdavidt Posts: 112member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I find lanscape mode very difficult to use. Much faster with portrait mode with my thumbs. I think that overall the typing is easier, since people I know with iPhones send much longer messages to me than people with other phones, but that is hardly evidence.





    Yes, landscape is taking me time to get used to as well, but I recall it took some time to get typing fast with iphone in the first place, after 2 weeks I was fast with 2 thumbs. and today I'm typing in landscape faster than i was 2 days ago.



    In addition the versatility (changing keyboards for different languages, special symbols etc) is fantastic. i have type in 3 languages and this is the best typing experience so far, better than on any other smartphone I've used



    I hear from people who have no iphone that 'it must take ages to complete a message when you're typing with the index finger' - no idea where this misconception comes from.
  • Reply 27 of 137
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    See, this is interesting, because it's considered that the landscape physical keyboards are much easier to use than the portrait ones. The Pre was criticized in several reviews for going portrait rather than going landscape.



    You must have very short thumbs.



    Not at all, I never lost a thumb wrestling match if that tells you anything.



    I find landscape best for physical keyboards, which is why I find Palms portrait mode keyboard a bad move. Perhaps I?m just used to it after nearly 2 years but I find the shorter range of movement and the ability to keep the thumbs pointed directly down at the keys much easier than with landscape.



    I do quite a bit of postings here from my iPhone. You can usually tell because I?ll have an unusual number of words that are similar but wrong for the sentence.
  • Reply 28 of 137
    markbmarkb Posts: 153member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    I really didn't want to get into all of that.



    But it does end up with about the numbers I expressed. You don't have to get too technical about it. Simplicity is best here. We're not in class.



    No. Simplicity is best but saying that there is less than a 1.5% when the sample size is 256 is just plain wrong. There is an approximate +-4% on this one so if you performed the survey again you would expect to find somewhere between 21 and 41 people (8%-16%) were switching on average. The +-.75% spread you are suggesting would mean they could perform the same survey and 31 people +-2 people would say they had dumped the BB.
  • Reply 29 of 137
    virgil-tb2virgil-tb2 Posts: 1,416member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    AApproximately 12% of consumers who visited a retail store this past weekend to make their iPhone 3G S purchase said they were replacing a BlackBerry handset, the latest sign that Apple continues to make headway against rival Research in Motion in the high-stakes smartphone market. ...



    Based on my personal observations I think this trend of eating into the Blackberry market is likely to continue. While the common wisdom is that Blackberry users are serious corporate types, the Blackberry, (especially the Bold and the Pearl), has been very popular with average consumers, especially young women, for quite a while in my area.



    I work at a large University and take the train to work every day and what I see is the Blackberry devices being very, very popular amongst the younger texting crowd on the train, but these folks almost always have an iPod in their lap as well. It's a safe bet that most of these people will eventually move to a single device and given the demographics, this device is likely to be an iPhone.



    IMO the portion of Blackberry's clientele that are "hard core" corporate users (basically those that have the Blackberry given to them by their workplace), will stick with it, but it's future as a consumer smartphone seems very dim indeed.



    Young university types are often leading indicators of these markets and on my daily commute, it seems like the iPhone is just passing the 50% mark about now when I look about me on the train whereas even a month ago it was more like 60/40 for blackberry. This is just one tiny data point for sure, but interesting nonetheless.
  • Reply 30 of 137
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Fair enough.



    But it really is quite important to note that there's a huge difference between 12% +-X%, and 12% +- (X% of 12%). And, in all fairness, since you had said that he was "misunderstanding the numbers," it is important to note that the original poster, markb, was interpreting the concept correctly (although he was calculating the number incorrectly, as I pointed out above).





    You'll find that the numbers are about the same, and well within the margin of accuracy. I was merely trying to show that 12% isn't either 6% or 18%. If I knew you would be so picky, I would have used the other way of calculating it, which would have given almost the same exact answer, but is more confusing to most people.



    I trust that ends this?
  • Reply 31 of 137
    jupiteronejupiterone Posts: 1,564member
    I too have great difficulty typing in landscape mode. I can type MUCH faster vertically with one finger and letting auto-correct fix any mistakes.



    And on that note, has anyone else notice that it seems they've changed some things in the auto-correct? im now auto-corrects to IM . It used to auto-correct to I'm. But ill used to not auto-correct at all. Now it auto-corrects to I'll.
  • Reply 32 of 137
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by markb View Post


    No. Simplicity is best but saying that there is less than a 1.5% when the sample size is 256 is just plain wrong. There is an approximate +-4% on this one so if you performed the survey again you would expect to find somewhere between 21 and 41 people (8%-16%) were switching on average. The +-.75% spread you are suggesting would mean they could perform the same survey and 31 people +-2 people would say they had dumped the BB.



    No. Not correct.
  • Reply 33 of 137
    davidtdavidt Posts: 112member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    See, this is interesting, because it's considered that the landscape physical keyboards are much easier to use than the portrait ones. The Pre was criticized in several reviews for going portrait rather than going landscape.



    You must have very short thumbs.



    As i wrote in the other reply about landscape: I think it'll just take us a few more days to get used to. right now I find the 'sides' of my thumbs are triggering unwanted letters as I type in landscape, especially towards the centre of the keyboard (letters: TZU, FGH, CVB)



    i'm sure it's just early awkwardness :-)



    -D
  • Reply 34 of 137
    markbmarkb Posts: 153member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    No. Not correct.



    The only point I was trying to make with my initially back of the envelope math...The 12%+-4% they report is very close to (and might overlap) the 6%+-4% they reported last year. Take it with a huge grain of salt.
  • Reply 35 of 137
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    No. Not correct.



    I would have been happy to end this, per your request above. But since you felt compelled to respond to markb, I have to say again that markb is correct, and you are incorrect.



    It is extremely important to use/present/discuss some of these ideas accurately, since they are widely prevalent notions in the popular realm and in public discourse. The differences between what you are saying and what markb is saying are not just statistically meaningful (in which case, one would let it go in a forum like this), but economically meaningful.



    Sorry, melgross, but it matters.



    (That's all I intend to say about it).
  • Reply 36 of 137
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    These sales numbers are not going to motivate AT&T to lower their plan prices

    any time soon.
  • Reply 37 of 137
    davidtdavidt Posts: 112member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JupiterOne View Post


    I too have great difficulty typing in landscape mode. I can type MUCH faster vertically with one finger and letting auto-correct fix any mistakes.



    And on that note, has anyone else notice that it seems they've changed some things in the auto-correct? im now auto-corrects to IM . It used to auto-correct to I'm. But ill used to not auto-correct at all. Now it auto-corrects to I'll.



    I have not noticed this new behaviour,

    maybe your changes have come about through your selections in auto-correction?



    solely based on my observations I think the auto correction 'learns'. ie if you deny a correction suggestion a few times, it will accept your initial proposal, and accept this into it's dictionary as default.



    Eg: when i typed "L", iphone immediately proposed "LOL",

    since I was typing my friend's initials, i turned down "LOL" and typed "LC"

    after 2 or 3 times, it stopped suggesting "LOL" and since then suggests "LC"



    however: recently I intended to type "LOL", so I denied "LC", and now it's gone back to suggesting LOL every time i type a capital "L".



    so maybe if you deny IM and type I'm, it will efault back to that?



    either way, I find it's still the best auto completion I have come across

    -D
  • Reply 38 of 137
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    At the risk of harming whatever benefits remain for Apple's under the lucrative deal with at&t, they need to start selling iPhones with other carriers. This is the only thing they can do to ensure rapid, sustainable growth for the future.



    You're right, but a contract is a contract right.



    BTW, who is this AT&T person you keep on mentioning?
  • Reply 39 of 137
    bulk001bulk001 Posts: 764member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by davidT View Post


    quick question: do many people have difficulty using the iphones on-screen keyboard?



    I can type just as fast on the iphone as I ever could on the blackberry, and find the auto-correction on iphone pretty good. but I keep hearing that for email, twitter etc a 'real' keyboard is far better than the iphone's solution....



    with a little practice, and especially now with the landscape mode, typing can't be slower on iphone surely?

    -D



    The problem is that if you are in a meeting and your wag texts you, you have to look while you type as there is no point of reference. If you have a physical keyboard it is a lot easier to text without being a distraction in a meeting.
  • Reply 40 of 137
    stompystompy Posts: 408member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by davidT View Post


    quick question: do many people have difficulty using the iphones on-screen keyboard?



    I can type just as fast on the iphone as I ever could on the blackberry, ...



    Two co-workers in my (very small) building are in the process of switching from BBs to iPhones. The first person is using a 1 finger poke. It's painful to watch. I've suggested that he just start using his thumbs and his typing will improve (after all, he didn't go from 0-50wpm on his BB overnight).
Sign In or Register to comment.