iPhone users now have a new nickname courtesy of BlackBerry CEO (at least the current one) John Chen. While speaking at the Oasis Montgomery Conference this week Chen was asked about the popularity of the iPhone. The CEO must have been at the top of his game because he was quick to respond “I call you guys wall huggers” apparently take a jab at iPhone’s battery life.

While this seems somewhat witty and clever, to me it’s an indication that BlackBerry is still set in their typical old-time ways. While I believe there is a market for longer battery life, the fact that many iPhone and Android handsets maintain popularity even though their battery is a weak point indicates that the majority of the market (myself included) prioritizes other features above battery life.

Last year I made the plunge to the Android world and bought a Nexus 5 – I’m the first to admit that I have to recharge my phone when I get home from work each day. While some people might think that this means I have to go essentially phone-feature free while my phone is charging, the reality is that my data is so well integrated into my Google Account that I just pull out my Nexus 7 and continue on with my docs, email, etc. When I couple my built in Google Features with multi platform messengers such as mySMS it means that I’m able to continue on messaging (including plain SMS/text messages) from my tablet, desktop, etc. This is just one example of how it my situation battery life is low priority for me.

I do realize Chen’s comment was most likely just a shot at the competition but I really worry that it also is a prime example of BlackBerry still not shaking the old-generation thinking on smartphones. I would like nothing more than to see BlackBerry make a come back in the smartphone world but in my opinion focusing on their less important pluses over the competition rather than focusing on how to fix their negatives won’t help this happen.