BlackBerry, once a multi-billion dollar company, has struggled while competing with Apple and Android to recreate and set high standards of the use in the mobile phone market.

    Stephanie Fielder, Greenwood junior, changed from a Blackberry to an iPhone this year and has positive feedback to the switch so far.

   “Sometimes the ball on my BlackBerry would get stuck and I couldn’t move it to use my phone, but on my iPhone I never have problems,” Fielder said. 

   According to an iPass survey created over the past year by the provider of enterprise Mobility Services made by 2,300 mobile workers, more than 91 percent of business employers use a smartphone for daily professional use compared to 69 percent in 2011. While just a year ago,     BlackBerry beat the iPhone by 35 percent, according to the recent survey that number has dramatically dropped to 32 percent.

   Recent turmoil hasn’t helped the company, including numerous product and software delays. The phone that has built its reputation on security and reliability got hit with a three-day service outage that affected five continents.

   With the creation of the iPhone, Apple has had many people stand behind it while it shows people just how far it can take technology. For instance, iPhone users can download about 30 times more applications than available to BlackBerry users, and the process is more user-friendly.

   “It doesn’t take as long to load the Internet, and there is literally an app for everything,” Fielder said. 

   Much of what has happened throughout the BlackBerry world has reflected through its shares, which have dropped dramatically over the past two years while the iPhone market has risen in the same time. 

   Last September, Jim Balsillie, Co-chief executive of BlackBerrry, said that the new BlackBerry 7 launch was going “extremely well” and left the holiday season running safe. 

   In the next several months, BlackBerry is planning to come out with new features and devices, including a
software upgrade to its PlayBook tablet in February that will enable the device to run Android apps.