They prefer the iPhone and they opt for the BlackBerry

A study recently carried out by OCENDI (Observatory of Leisure and Digital Entertainment), on the consumption of audiovisual content through mobile media, reveals the preferences of young people between 18 and 25 years old in terms of mobile operating systems. The final report, which will be released before the end of the year, shows the different uses given to these devices according to sex and age.

According to a study recently carried out by Killed (Digital Leisure and Entertainment Observatory), on the consumption of audiovisual content through mobile media, while the iPhone is the phone chosen by 24.39% of boys, only 9.46% of them prefer this device. BlackBerrys lead the female market, with 51.35% of followers, compared to 26.83% of men.

If in previous years Symbian (Nokia) was the most widespread operating system, and led sales before the smartphone era, in current statistics we see that the Finnish company has been in free fall since 2009. The alliance between Microsoft and Nokia, the two software and hardware giants, reveals a change in the rules of the game, where the eternal competitor of Microsoft and the recently arrived Google take the lead.

The first smartphone appeared on the market in 1999 from the Canadian company RIM (Research in Motion). BlackBerry became popular among executives, who chose it for its features (especially email access) and its keyboard. But the real revolution was presented by the recently deceased Steve Jobs at Macworld in 2007. iPhone was not a simple telephone, the visionary Jobs presented a “large-screen touch iPod, a telephone and the revolution in Internet communications”, all integrated into the same terminal, where, following the company's line, aesthetics weigh more than functionality. iPhone discovered a new market, that of applications, to which the historical figures of the mobile telephone market were slow to react. The importance of these devices and their development forecasts in the coming years are such that probably in 2015 there will be more Internet connections via mobile than by computer.

However, as the OCENDI study reveals, although Android is currently the best-selling operating system, young people continue to bet heavily on RIM and Symbian, demonstrating their conservative tendencies regarding technology.

For them, phones are symbols of belonging to a group, customizable elements that reflect their tastes and the need for communication with their peers. When asked what tool would you do without? Both men and women place instant messaging in last place. Smartphones have opened new avenues of communication. Paradoxically, what is really important about a mobile phone, for these young people, is not that it allows a telephone connection from anywhere, but rather the ability to maintain written conversations, to share at all times what they think, feel and suffer. In this context, the BlackBerry physical keyboard is presented as the ideal one to fulfill these new communication desires.

Without a doubt, the failures in the BlackBerry service, first in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina and later extended to the United States, Canada and Mexico, have seriously damaged RIM's image among these young people, who have seen their communication needs frustrated. This situation has paved the way for competitors who will undoubtedly direct their campaigns to protect the “here and now” generation, orphaned for a few days by the vulnerabilities of a system that until now seemed unbreakable to them.