TechDrum Digital Revolution, July 2018 | Page 20

Gadgets

THE EVOLUTION OF SMARTPHONES

WHEN APPLE AND BLACKBERRY WERE ONCE FRUITS.
18 July 2018 | TD

In the early 90s, if someone ever made a remark of any sort, about humans using a phone that could perform basic conversation with computing task while one could record videos and snap photos like we have today, I bet he’ ll be labelled a joke and then to make it worse, he probably named them Apple or Blackberry. Pretty sure he’ s going to get thrown out of the pub for excessive drinking and thrash talking if not beaten up. But here we are today, Apple and Blackberry are different from apple and blackberry in every way.

Pre-millennium Era
All we had was just a telephone device; you know the type with massive buttons and unnecessarily huge keypads, huge handles with wire connection flying around the wall of the office or house as the case may be. Then when we had the rotary dial telephone – a luxury at the time. And in no time came“ modern” telephones with push buttons – no offense to old times.
Post-millennium Era
We are being introduced to the advancement mobile telephony could afford and as it unfolds, we are wowed by the creativity, simplicity, design, and product competitiveness invested along the way. We are literally carrying in our hands, pockets, and backpacks, highly complex and sophisticated electronic devices which our lives depend on. We use them to do virtually everything from communicating to driving, writing, videos, gaming, banking and a host of other things.
I once saw a video of a kid given a new iPhone to unbox, only to open and found out it was empty. He was filled with rage and utmost disgust for been played by the parent. And here I was just laughing my ass out. Years ago, if someone came with an apple as a gift, I know how happy I would be. I would know it was an apple before collecting it because there wouldn’ t be a need for unboxing. The poor kid didn’ t see it coming I guess. Most kids nowadays would prefer Apple to apple, you can try and find out for yourself too, pretty sure you will be shocked by your discovery.
Before the start of the millennium, apple and blackberry were just fruits to billions of people around the world and was quite cheap as well. You could literally walk into any grocery store and come out with a basket full of these fruits; well, health tips say they are good for the body – Yes.
Today, you might need to enter an Apple store to purchase their latest iPhone X with at least $ 999, that’ s a lot if it were to be an apple while a new Blackberry KEY2 will cost you $ 649. Apple unveiled its first mobile phone which called iPhone in 2007 by the then CEO Steve Jobs, a product he described as“ a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone”. Blackberry was already ruling the market at the time Apple came in with others. In the last quarter of 2008, Apple recorded a 4.7million in sales which is a 13 % of the smartphone market share while Blackberry’ s Research in Motion had 15 %.
Apple soon became a necessity for communication and other purposes alongside Android while Blackberry remained in the market even though the demand for their products began to dwindle when other platforms came in big with something( large screen) different from what Blackberry had. The demand for Apple and other devices had increased massively even though along the line, Blackberry fell out of the market with 207900 units sold, claiming( 0.0 %) market share with Android and Apple’ s IOS leading the bunch according to Gartner report for the last quarter of 2016. Not too long ago, Blackberry announced that it will no longer produce its own devices but would outsource the production to an Indonesian telecom company while maintaining the Blackberry brand. The company has turned its attention to software, a moved which saw its share jump to 4 % after the announcement was made. Blackberry once had a hold on the mobile phone market, it was once a wonderful choice of mobile telephone for Wall Street traders, celebrities, politicians and also used in movies, but now the story has changed. It has been replaced by mobile platforms who aren’ t scared of making a change, something Blackberry was scared of doing. Apple is still doing it big while Blackberry is trying to reinvent itself and so also is apple and blackberry.
We have these four products at our disposal and to be frank we can afford any of these. And for those who can’ t afford the iPhone X like myself, let’ s us all stick to that apple which will be of benefit