New research from the UK’s leading discount site has revealed that the majority of Britons don’t think that the new and improved ‘BlackBerry World’, where users can download apps on the new operating system BB10, will be a patch on Apple’s app store.
It would appear that Britons have lost faith in BlackBerry, as a new survey has revealed that 67% of mobile phone owners in the UK don’t think that the new BlackBerry 10 operating system will rival Apple’s iPhone, particularly when it comes to downloading apps. The survey, conducted by MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, polled a total of 2,196 Smartphone owners ahead of the launch of the new BlackBerry operating system, based on reports of its features; asking questions surrounding the revamped Blackberry World store.
Respondents were initially asked whether they thought that the revamped ‘BlackBerry World’ would be an equal rival to Apple’s app store, to which the majority, 67% of respondents said ‘no’.
When asked why they thought that was the case, the majority, 44% explained that they thought that people had ‘lost faith’ in BlackBerry, whilst 21% said that they thought that BlackBerry would ‘struggle to produce anything as good as the iPhone’s App store’. 33% explained that they thought the sheer number of apps available for iPhone wouldn’t be able to be matched by BlackBerry World in volume.
However, a third, 34% of those polled said that they used a BlackBerry, and 26% of those respondents said that they would upgrade to the newest handset when it comes out – Of the 66% polled that didn’t have a BlackBerry, 18% said they would choose one as their handset when they were next offered an upgrade/ able to purchase a new phone. When asked why, the majority, 56%, explained that they ‘liked the rumoured facilities that the phone offered’, whilst 21% were simply ‘fed up’ of their current Smartphone manufacturer.
Mark Pearson, Chairman of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, had the following to say about the results:
“Whilst it was unsurprising to find out that the majority of people don’t think that the new BlackBerry World store could rival Apple’s, it was interesting to find out that almost a fifth of those that don’t have a BlackBerry are considering switching to a BlackBerry handset when they upgrade.”
He continued:
“It will be interesting to see how the new BlackBerry will compete with the other well-established phones on the market. It does seem like this is a bit of a last hurrah for the brand, as the success of the new handsets could be make or break for the company.”