iPhone touches off war with BlackBerry

Last week Apple released the much expected SDK for the iPhone, allowing thrid party applications to run on the handset. This move (from John O'Brien's Technology Blog MacChat) will reposition the iPhone in the corporate segment, which up until now has been dominated by RIM's BlackBerry.
The iPhone is already the second most popular smartphone after the BlackBerry but up until now it was not a serious contender in the corporate segment.
It should be interesting to see how things evolve in Latin America, where just a couple of years ago the BlackBerry was introduced with much hype. Despite being a small niche (in some countries in LA, subscribers are only in the thousands), it has proven to be one of the highest revenue generating handsets for operators worldwide.
In Latin America, however, the segment for smartphones is much smaller than in North America or Europe, and targeting this segment with special handsets can be tricky. Such is the case of the BlackBerry. This means that the introduction of Apple's iPhone in Latin America can seriously jeopordize RIM's position as the handset for the corporate segment given its broad appeal and the hype it has generated worldwide.

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