Has Apple reached tipping point?

IT | Vibeka Mair | 3 Feb 2010

Vibeka Mair wonders if Apple has reached tipping point, as she considers the 'iPhone versus Blackberry' debate.

Last week, Apple released the iPad to frenzied excitement, it turned in the best quarterly results in its 34-year history and I tried to buy the latest iPhone 3GS - unsuccessfully.

Orange was offering me an upgrade on my 2007 BlackBerry. I decided I wanted to try out the iPhone. The best offer was the iPhone for free on a £45-a-month contract, offering 600 free minutes of calls, unlimited texts and - I think - free broadband on a 24-month contract – basically over two years at a cost of £1,080.

Gone were the days of six-months contracts, I thought, and you still never get the phone free on the 12-month version.

It felt like a big investment, but the iPhone did have so many useful functions - your music, emails, twitter, internet, camera and the iPhone apps which I was hearing about but didn’t get how they worked.

The sales guy suggested I upgraded my current Blackberry to the latest one instead. It was a good deal and the phone was great, everyone in the office used it, I could take a look at his colleague’s one.

I agreed it looked good, but I was bored of the Blackberry, it was useful but the only good thing really was the instant talking with friends it offered. And that wasn’t working properly at the moment. The sales assistant didn’t know why.

Opening up a bit more, he apologised saying he’d loved to offer me a negotiation on an iPhone upgrade but he wasn’t allowed. You would be banned from selling it if you tried. He shouldn’t even be showing me the sheet of pricing schemes which I said I’d take away with me to fully consider.

Suppose I’ll have to wait then….

And just to rub it in, it's 9.10am on Wednesday morning and the "great" iPad is trending on Twitter again.

Who's Who: Vibeka Mair

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