Apples to Blackberries

It's been a rush to keep up with the iPhone lately.  For consumers, a new Application is released every ten seconds.  Business partner AT&T is constantly changing and updating its rate structure and business model around the phone.  And now it seems, Verizon and Blackberry are pumping extra cash into their latest baby, the Storm, to compete with Apple.

With the Storm now costing $203, technically the phone is being sold at a $4 loss.  For more pricing info go here.  However, the real story here is the lengths to which competition is going to compete with the growing popularity of the iPhone.  When Apple introduced the iPhone, AT&T sold it at a loss as well.  Now obviously they are making serious bank on the data plan, but Apple itself has something going for it that the Storm and its manufacturer don't.  That is the cash cow that we call iTunes.  The App Store is selling applications faster then programmers can create them, and Apple is getting much of the proceeds.

While 1 million Storm's have been sold, Verizon has little chance of ever matching the iPhone's popularity.  And right now they're paying for it, literally.