Kiwiblog

The Herald reports that in August 2008 the share price for RIM was $132.40 and for Apple $176.03. Fairly close.

Today the price for Apple is $701.91 and RIM is $7.25.

So four years ago $100,000 would get you 568 Apple shares or 755 RIM shares.

If you had invested in RIM you would now have $5,475 left – you would have lost 95% of your $100,000.

If you had invested in Apple you would now have $398,744 and would have 299% of your $100,000.

Now it is very sad for all the RIM staff who have lost their jobs, and all the RIM investors who have lost 95% of their investment.

But this is how the market works. Some companies succeed, and some fail. Some people get rich, and some become poorer. Yes, you have massive income and asset inequality.

I’m not surprised by the fall off in value for RIM. Three years ago almost everyone in business had a Blackberry. Now I see one about as often as Haley’s comet. Quite simply Apple produced a much better product, and customers voted with their feet.

I’ve had a Blackberry for around six years. It was great with the no cost Blackberry Messenger, the secure e-mails through Blackberry servers, and the normal smartphone functions. I got to experience why it was also known as the crackberry as it was highly addictive.

But sadly the time has come to say bye bye to my Blackberry. I have a Blackberry Bold, and it is less than three years old but it just craps out so much. Almost every day, after a few hours use, it starts to freeze up. At first for a few seconds, then for minutes then indefinitely. The only way to fix it is to remove and replace the battery. This is bad enough, but doing so suddenly drains the battery to near empty, and your phone then dies for the rest of the day unless you have a charger.

A number of other Blackberry users say they experience this also, so it seems to be a design fault. Even worse if someone calls you while your blackberry is having a pause, the phone never rings. Or it does ring but stops you being able to answer the call. I figure more calls are being blocked than getting through.

So this week I plan to buy a new smartphone. My intention is to get an iPhone 4s. I would like to wait for the iPhone 5, but Apple have not announced a date yet and even another three months of my Blackberry will send me mad.

The reason I am looking at the iPhone 4s is partly the features, but also partly that I have a iPad and iPod so easy to synchronise data and applications between all my devices.

However welcome thoughts from readers as to what they recommend. Does someone want to make a case for upgrading to the latest Blackberry or perhaps to get an Android?  Or should I join the 102 million people who have purchased an iPhone in the last year?

And if anyone has secret info that in fact the iPhone 5 is going to be released in the next month, let me know and I’ll suffer and delay my purchase.

A reader has sent me details of speed testing on an iPhone4 in Dunedin, comparing networks.

The author also has a website, detailing the tests.

He notes these are not a general comparison of speeds between networks, but a comparison on the iPhone 4 only, in Dunedin. He did try six different locations there and his conclusion was that Telecom XT provides far greater speeds – but only in places where it works. In two places a good signal could not be located.

I’ve been waiting for video calls to become standard, and the new iPhone looks like it will do just that.

I love how some of the imaginary technology that featured on shows like the Jetsons, is fast becoming reality.

A reader alerted me to this article:

Though not necessarily heralded as a hotbed of technological innovation, the City of Boston is plunging headlong into what may be the future of civic engagement by debuting an iPhone app connecting residents to city hall. The app, known as Citizen Connect, is the brainchild of a handful of mayoral aides and will allow residents to file complaints with the city by snapping a photo of a problem–a pothole, a fallen tree limb, a neighbor’s overgrown lawn–and sending it to city hall, complete with a geo-tag so city officials can find and fix the problem.

Now that is a great idea.

The new Auckland Council could be a leader on this!

Yay, Vodafone has made available some cheaper plans for the iPhones. They have introduced a $60 and $40 monthly plan. You don’t get much talktime but if you like it for the data, it will be good for you as still 250 MB a month.

Vodafone has announced its pricing for the iPhones which go on sale on Friday, and its certainly not cheap.

The phone itself starst at $199, but only if you to a $6,000 contract over two years. Yeah thought not.

Their cheapest plan is not so bad – $80 a month which includes 120 minutes of calls (4 minutes a day), 600 texts (20 a day) and 250 MB of data (8Mb a day which isn’t bad). The phone will cost $549 or $699 (for 16GB phone) on top of that.

The $250 a month plan gives you 600 minutes or 20 minutes a day. No increase in texts (600) and a nice 1 GB of data.

I hope prices will drop over time. They probably have them high now because they know there will be some peopel who will pay anything for an iPhone. Personally I would hold off and wait for some lower prices as will be inevitable when they want more customers.