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On the trip to the parent’s house this weekend, I was bemoaning the fact that Twitterberry is not exactly a stellar Twitter client for the Blackberry. And I appear to be in good company since Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures complained about the same thing on Friday.
So why is a smart developer not paying attention? After all, RIM announced in September 2008 that they have over 19 million Blackberry subscribers. Compare this to the Nielsen estimate that there were 3.6 million iPhone users in October 2008. So while there are 5X as many Blackberry users, the only decent option is Twitterberry while iPhone users have Hahlo, Tweetie, Twitterific and a whole bunch of others.
And this lack of options is coming out clear in Google as well. If you search “Twitter for Blackberry” you get 4.2 million results. But if you type “Twitter for iPhone” you get a staggering 10.3 million results.
Blackberries (not iPhone) are the tool of the trade for most marketers and Brand Managers out there. If Twitter is going to catch on with this group, it would help to have a solid Blackberry option for them. As Twitter’s popularity grows, Blackberry themselves would be smart to develop a killer Twitter app and stop giving corporate users any excuse to switch over to the iPhone.
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Tags: BlackBerry, Fred Wilson, iPhone, Social Networking, Twitter
People with Blackberries are supposed to be working
Amen to this Dave. I’ve been saying the same thing since I saw Hahlo on an iPhone. TwitterBerry is a long way away from being on par.
I am an iPhone user, recently converted from Blackberry. To be honest, I think the multitude of Twitter clients on iPhone is overkill — Hahlo is just fine (as are any of the others). While Twitterberry might not be as good as say, Hahlo, what I really believe you are picking up on is the volume at which iPhone users talk about iPhone Twitter clients. It’s as if team iPhone has convinced you that you aren’t getting the full Twitter experience on your Bberry.
BTW, I hear BlackBerry Messenger is the killer app preventing a lot of college kids from switching to iPhone. I never used it … you?
I have a Blackberry, and I make do with SMS for Twitter, but it would be nice to have a decent client, as i use Twitter quite a lot for various uses – business and personal
Dave, excellent post. I have lunch with the brand manager of Verizon Wireless and i am going to ask him to reach out to his contact at RIM and ask the question. And to your other point…all it will take will be a few brands with some solid case studies to make it a bit more real…so they can see the benefit. By Feb I think.