Leader: Blackberrys and iPods - Hoover brands

Defining mobile email and mobile music - to the joy of RIM and Apple

December is the time of year not just for reviews of the past 12 months - and silicon.com is guilty as charged on that front - but when every tech publication gets asked about 'must-have stocking filler gadgets'. Or words to that effect.

This publication comes across plenty of gadgets but they are not really our reason for existing. A good gadget can change lives and companies - societies even, as many in the mobile phone industry might argue - but they normally have to be linked to wider practices, business models, needs and other tech, much of it network-based now.

However, two brands stand out as we approach the end of this year. Neither are new but both have come to own the very wide spaces they address.

For many business people, the word Blackberry is now synonymous with mobile email. The company that makes the devices and software to connect them to corporate email servers, Canada-headquartered RIM, yesterday announced stellar third-quarter results. You know a company is doing well when it mentions strong growth not just year-on-year but relative to the previously reported three months.

RIM has actually been around a while, and though it took some time to sell the first one million Blackberrys the second million were sold during 2004. Small numbers, relative to the total 600-million-plus per-year mobile phone market, but it's doing very well, one might say.

There are plenty of other mobile email options out there now, in terms of software and hardware. Some devices are even using cut down Blackberry software. (Others don't look like classic Blackberrys but are RIM's attempt to work with mobile operators to bring out devices that better resemble phones, one of the ideas being to stop people carrying around two or more handsets.)

But how many employees ask for other devices, whether some kind of smart phone or a PDA with email connectivity? The number is increasing but the big brand out there is still Blackberry.

Turning to another fruit, we can see a similar phenomenon in the consumer space. Apple's big hit of recent years doesn't centre on its robust personal computers or well-respected OS and other software - though some die-hard fans will doubtless register their complaints over such a statement. Clearly iPod is the word on everyone's lips - especially the average teenager wanting a digital music player.

Just as an MD will fire off a missive to the guys down in IT to set her up with one of those Blackberry things, so too will the average 15-year-old ask for an iPod this Christmas - even if there are dozens of competing MP3 players on the market.

Both Blackberrys and iPods have been marketed well. Both have become Hoover-like brands, defining and representing a whole category. They are a constant reminder to everyone else out there that ordinary people love good design and ease of use.

The competition will learn from what's happened but such change is slow. This article might well have been written a year ago. Who'd bet it won't also have resonance 12 months from now?