Women, Curves and Pearls: Myxer's Latest BoomBox Report Picks Blackberries

Women, curves and pearls?  Despite the teasing headline, this post is not about female shapes and jewelry preferences.  It is, however, about female smartphone preferences when it comes to the Blackberry phones they use.  The latest BoomBox Report issued by my employer, Myxer, takes note that despite the hype and attention surrounding the Android and iPhone platform, Blackberry handsets are still the dominant smartphones among Myxer's users. According to the report:

RIM continues to far outpace Windows, Palm, webOS, Android, iPhone and Symbian based on mobile visits, growing from a 58% market share in March2009 to a 63% share in March 2010. Of the other operating systems, Android comes in second, more than doubling over the same time period from 7% to 17%, while iPhone makes a modest jump to 4%, up from 2% from the previous year. Symbian and webOS occupy the smallest percentage of market share with less than 2% combined, while Windows Mobile was the biggest loser moving from 21% in 2009 down to 10% in 2010.Interestingly, the same holds true when comparing total downloads for the month of March 2010, where BlackBerry accounted for a whopping 72% of the 22 million smartphone content downloads, followed by Android at 14% and Windows Mobile at 7%. The others did not fare as well, with iPhone only grabbing a 2% share, Symbian a 3% share and webOS and Palm only representing 1% of smartphone downloads.

Women Like Their Curves and Pearls

While it is clear that RIM dominates the smartphone visitors and downloads at Myxer, it is also interesting to note that the majority of our Blackberry users are women.  While they are Bold enough to Storm the Tour, as the chart above shows, they much prefer the Curve and Pearl.  According to BoomBox:

As broken down by gender, women were surprisingly dominant across all BlackBerry devices, with the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 having the largest concentration of female users at 70%, and the BlackBerry Storm 9530 having the highest concentration of male users at 46%.

What do you think?  Do any of these findings surprise you?  You can download the PDF of the full Myxer BoomBox Report here.

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Posted via email from Kiss My SASS!

How 30 Apps Could Have Been A Pre-Cursor To Success, Rather Than A Curse

There has been a lot of speculation as to whether or not the Palm Pre is a hit and selling up to expectations. If you read this blog and follow me on Twitter you have probably gleaned that I love my Pre and think it is a spectacular device. That said, I am enormously frustrated by the lack of any new applications since its launch more than a month ago. It seems that I am compelled to check the "beta" App Catalog multiple times a day on the odd chance that finally something new will miraculously appear. (In truth, I am wishing hard that the next new app to emerge will be the Amazon Kindle app - without Orwell's 1984, of course...)

TIMING IS EVERYTHING...

At the beginning it seemed like things were on track. There were 18 apps in the catalog at launch, and within a matter of days it grew to 30 apps. Then, NOTHING. For weeks and weeks and weeks the app reservoir has been dry. Barren. APPallingly inactive. All things considered, if the Palm team were aware that the population was going to be limited only 30 apps for the foreseeable future, I think they would have been much better served by doling them out two or three a week until they were ready to open the app floodgates. Even if the total number of apps remained small I think the Pre would have maintained much more continuous momentum, and the related "buzz" and sales demand, if there had been a constant flow of new apps emerging in the catalog.

LIKE CARLY SIMON SAYS... ANTICIPATION!

Yes, buzz and demand can be created by anticipation... to a point. However, after too long a wait I believe the risk is that anticipation unfulfilled leads to frustration, or even worse, boredom, and then ultimately a lack of interest. With constant competition from the iPhone, new Blackberries, and a new Android Hero, Palm should be doing everything in its power to maintain the excitement and momentum that a steady stocking of apps would bring.

IS THE STRATEGY APPARENT?

What do you think? Is a slow steady rise more effective than a big quick launch followed by a flat line? How would you have handled the thin initial supply of apps if the Pre were your product? Have you had similar experiences or challenges with other product launches?

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From BARBIE to Blackberry!

Image by jikamajoja via FlickrTomorrow is my daughter's 17th birthday. As most parents know, buying "the right" gift for kids - especially teenage girls - is always a challenge. Get the wrong brand of over priced, over designed T-shirt (i.e. anything that's not ED HARDY) and their mood shifts from happy to sad faster than their weekly allowance disappears off their Visabuxx debit card. I can remember the days when the biggest birthday challenge was to toil over which version Barbie Doll was "the one" that would bring eternal smiles to my little girl's face. Those were the days when life was simple, and she refused to wear anything that wouldn't "spin" when she twirled around - yes, dresses only from ages 4 - 9.

ENTER THE MOBILE PHONE

In truth, though it has been more costly than even Malibu Barbie with the Beach House and Corvette Convertible, the past four or five years selecting my daughter's birthday gift has been a cinch. Every year for her birthday she wants a new phone. As someone who works in the Mobile industry, I often tout that for teens today the mobile phone is the center of their universe, and having three kids gives me the right to say that with the utmost confidence. So now birthdays are easy (albeit expensive.)

The last two years it was the T-Mobile Sidekick, and then the Sidekick 2 that fit the birthday bill. So, as this annual ritual rolled around I assumed my daughter would be itching to upgrade to yet the latest version of her well worn temple of texting. With that in mind, you can imagine my surprise when she announced that the object of her desire, the dreamy device that kept her awake at night longing for the feel of it's tiny keys sliding beneath her calloused and capable thumbs... was a BLACKBERRY CURVE! That was the phone she wanted. That was the phone she HAD to have (the RED one, of course.)

BEAMING DOWN FROM THE ENTERPRISE

Franky, I was honestly surprised. My daughter, whose connected life is so dependent on MySpace, Instant Messaging and Texting that she refuses to get a proper email address, now lusted after a phone that built its reputation on being the ultimate email device. She didn't just want it, either - she REALLY wanted it. I know that RIM (Research In Motion, the Canadian juggernaut that created the Blackberry) has been aggressively trying to break out of their mold as an "enterprise only" device and crack the consumer ranks with crackberries like the lithe PEARL and the sultry CURVE. If my daughter is any indication, they have succeeded, big time.

So Blackberry Curve it was. We visited the local T-MO store and made the swap, and my daughter is already completely enamored with her little red Curve-ette.

She doesn't miss her Sidekick and is already texting at speeds that would make Mavis Beacon the typing tutor proud. Below is a sample of her mad thumb typing skills on our way to buy the Blackberry. The geek in me is so proud! ;-)


Mad Thumbtyping Skillz of a 17 yo Girl on 12seconds.tv

How about you? Are mobile phones on your gift lists? How often do you get your kids a new phone, and at what ages? Let me know in the comments, and if you enjoy reading this, please subscribe to this blog by email or RSS.

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The Sass Sons (and dining with an iPhone)

The boys at dinner tonight at California Pizza Kitchen. Clearly, the doofy expressions are proof positive that genetics works and more importantly, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. More specifically, the apple was quite large and hit us all in the head when it fell from the tree!

Speaking of apples, last night Sue and I dined at a quite fancy restaurant, Il Mulino on Collins Avenue. At the cozy table next to us an attractive, expensively dressed young woman sat alone and carefully lay out a Blackberry Pearl and an iPhone before her. She spent her Saturday evening dining alone, alternating between sending text messages on the Pearl and talking on the iPhone. A sign of the times? Remember when dining alone meant a corner table and a good novel? I was dying to lean over and ask her why she needed both the Blackberry and the iPhone... Was it the keyboard? Battery life? Just showing off she could afford to have both? Inquiring minds want to know!