After the past couple weeks of iPhone hype, I was relieved to see a Globe and Mail article about how RIM hasn’t been sweating the release of the iPhone. At the RIM shareholders meeting, in fact, RIM CEO Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis spoke of the iPhone only during question period. Balsillie’s response to the iPhone threat is that he’d rather set his sights on moving forward and releasing the next new product (talk about a positive outlook). This, I think is an important approach for a company like RIM that is trying to maintain market share while in competition with one of the most influential brands around.

In an interview earlier this month, RBC Capital Markets’ analyst Mike Abramsky went so far as to call the Apple following somewhat “cult-like”. Mike feels Apple has been tremendously successful in producing an emotional appeal; people feel an emotional attachment to and desire for their products.

This got me thinking, that perhaps a stronger branding campaign to emphasize the work/data functions of the BlackBerry over the media function-driven iPhone could help drive sales for RIM. Needless to say I was surprised to read about RIM’s new advertizing campaign “Blackberry for Life”, designed to promote the media capabilities of their devices. While the Blackberry and iPhone may have similar functions (e-mail, texting, web browsing, media functions, etc) they deliver these features from different perspectives.

While Mike seemed to think that we would be seeing more innovation from RIM, there is no doubt in my mind of the distinct differences in these devices today: Blackberrys may be all the rage on Bay Street, but iPhone kills in cool factor.

Considering RIM’s success in its given (professional/business) market,

If Blackberry abandons its ‘professional’ roots, it risks being eclipsed by the iPhone in the media department. I’m not yet convinced that this is a market the BlackBerry should play in, but only time will tell what RIM has up its sleeve.