Contrary to popular belief the iPhone is not the most sold smartphone in the United States. That title goes to the BlackBerry Curve who has pretty much maintained it’s seat on top of the smartphone hill of dominance since the quarter that the iPhone was introduced.
Based on U.S. consumer sales of smartphone handsets in NPD’s “Smartphone Market Update” report, the first-quarter 2009 ranking of the top-five best- selling smartphones is as follows:
1. RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models)
2. Apple iPhone 3G (all models)
3. RIM BlackBerry Storm
4. RIM BlackBerry Pearl (all models, except flip)
5. T-Mobile G1
What is more impressive than the BlackBerry Curve holding the number 1 spot is that the BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Pearl hold the number 3 and 4 spots respectively giving RIM 3 of the top 4 selling smartphones. No matter how you look at it, RIM is selling a lot more BlackBerrys than is Apple iPhones. No wonder Apple is looking to bring the iPhone to Verizon.
[Via Silicon Alley Insider]
Do you honestly think that the BlackBerry could really compete with the iPhone if it were limited to one network. Look at all the BlackBerry users that wish that they had an iPhone…
In a word, Absolutely!
The iPhone, which I am the proud and happy owner of in additon to my work provided BlackBerry 8830, isn’t limited to a single carrier because Apple had no choice. Making the iPhone exclusive to AT&T is a decision Apple made it would appear that it was a decision that they need to rethink.
Seeing how I’ve written about BlackBerry devices pretty much every day for the passed 5 years or so, I concede the point that I am a probably a BlackBerry FanBoy. The question, however, that you need to ask yourself is “what are you” since you feel the need to call me out with such a ridiculous argument.
It’s kind of like saying “There is no way Microsoft, with their 90% market share, could compete with the Mac if MS actually manufactured PCs and didn’t license their OS to other hardware manufacturers.”
Fact of the matter is that this, like your statement, is hypothetical.
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts…
Man if Apple just put a keyboard on the iPhone, made it easier to make phone calls, send emails, and text messages, allowed me to hook it up to my companies BES, and had a removable battery, it would be the perfect device… 🙂
I think the numbers lend themselves to several observations. First, Blackberry is far and away the number 1 provider of smartphones. There are several reasons for this, including the variety of handsets, and their availability on all majot networks. Second, the iPhone is still selling very well, especially when you consider that it is limited tot he lousy AT&T network. Third, the G1 is amajot success, and Android has a bright future.
What I think is very surprising is the absence of the Bold from the list. I would chalk this up to the fact that it is limited to AT&T, which as we all know sucks. However, Iphone, G1, and Storm all made the list, and they are limited to one carrier. Is the Bold just not connecting with the public, or was it #6 on the list? I would be interested to know its placement.
wait isnt this Rimarkable.com, not i am an apple drone .com ?? Robb you dont need to respond to anything !!! Blackberries are a better phone, well if you subtract the storm which still has great potential once the carriers (voda and verizon) can sort it out with RIM to Make the software work better. In ending Bugger off “applefanbois”, go suck on steve jobs decrepted teets !!!
I’m just waiting for “The Rock” and his stupid rhetoric.
I own a Storm and an iPhone, and I’m dropping the iPhone for the Pre for two reasons: 1) AT&T drops more phone calls than a receptionist with three inch nails, 2) The iPhone still doesn’t have the ability to multi-task, even with 3.0.
No surprise by the numbers.
Bible sold the most ever in history but doesn’t mean you’ll be rich by selling it.
Curve sold for a long time and it is free these days. Curve is also a outdated, replaced new model and obsolete product like all others. There is nothing good to brad about it.
BTW, just so you know, my Curve crashes often, it slow down by stupid background apps which I can’t kill, I am disappointed with BB.
Those keep saying BB is better than iPhone should use both and tell the truth, not just be a blind followers.
^ If what you say is ‘true’, then it’s even worse for Apple to be passed by a device that is outdated, multi-tasks, and crashes.
Oh…and I have both devices.
I’ve used both since the day the first iPhone was sold. The iPhone is better at multimedia, coolness of applications and games, and web browsing compared to the BlackBerry in every way.
The BlackBerry is better at being a phone, sending and receiving email and text messages, Tweeting, and IMing and pretty much any and everything related to text or voice as compared to the iPhone.
Quite honestly I think that the iPhone should be compared more to the Sony PSP than to the BlackBerry. They are a lot closer in function if you ask me.
“bluehorseshoe 05.04.09 at 11:39 am
I’m just waiting for “The Rock” and his stupid rhetoric.”
SO DESPERATE, SO off topic, SO worried about what others have to say. Yet again bluehorseshoe rimarkable is NOT your personal space to make your desperate comments about others. Grow up.
Rob
So true. I have an Iphone and a BB pearl because our mail program at work has no iPhone support. BB does the messaging function (email, text, etc) better than anyone.
Robb,
The iPhone is nothing like the Sony PSP, The iPhone is a handheld computer, a internet-connected multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. which has shown RIM major competition in the phone/internet/email/ personal communications device area.
“On January 21, 2009, Apple announced sales of 4.36 million iPhone 3Gs in the first quarter of fiscal 2009, ending December 2008, totaling 17.4 million iPhones to date. Sales in Q4 2008 surpassed temporarily those of RIM’s BlackBerry sales of 5.2 million units, which made Apple briefly the third largest mobile phone manufacturer by revenue, after Nokia and Samsung.”
Remember too what is influencing these numbers is providers giving away BB’s “buy one get one free” and that you can get a BB for penny’s compared to buying a iPhone. There are no buy one get one free iPhone special deals.
Other than for the few desperate fanboys is this a game of numbers? Is this a either / or contest? The Blackberry is making the iPhone better and Apple with the iPhone is pushing RIM hard to keep up and make better BB’s, for consumers isn’t that a win win?
Carrier availability, price, maketing give-aways, and more have influenced these numbers. For a desperate few, feel free to get out the BB pom-poms, for the rest of us, be happy there is competition AND that both the BB and the iPhone are solid, viable choices.
The iPhone is a hand held computer? That’s too funny. Let me know when I can work on a spreadsheet and send an email without having to close one operation.
Does not RIM get paid if a carrier decides to completely subsidize a device? Once the “get one free ‘ BlackBerry does not RIM get the monthly fee?
It cracks me up how if the iPhone does better than the BlackBerry, it is because the BlackBerry sucks, but, if the BlackBerry does well, everyone has got some kind of excuse.
A handheld computer the iPhone may be and when you you do handheld computer stuff the iPhone is top dog. The reality of things, however, is that most people still use phones to talk to people, and in ever increasing numbers message and email people. The iPhone simply doesn’t compete with the BlackBerry in this arena much in the same way that the BlackBerry doesn’t compare to the iPhone when playing games and or surfing the web.
I imagine that this is why RIM sells more BlackBerry devices than does Apple iPhones…
RIM did “About average”……
http://www.jdpower.com/telecom/ratings/wireless-consumer-smartphone-ratings-(volume-1)
Must mean Apple did below average…
(market research firm) “NPD attributed the shift largely to an aggressive “buy-one-get-one” promotion by Verizon Wireless that helped RIM’s BlackBerry Curve move past the iPhone to become the best-selling consumer smartphone in the U.S. in the first quarter.”
“The more familiar, and less expensive, Curve benefited from these giveaways and was able to leapfrog the iPhone, due to its broader availability on the four major U.S. national carriers,” said analyst Ross Rubin.”
“The promotion also contributed to RIM capturing two additional top five positions, namely the the third slot, which went to the BlackBerry Storm, and the fourth, which was made up of all BlackBerry Pearl handsets with the exception of flip models.”
Oh and the JD Power ratings? “Apple’s iPhone ranks top of the chart, “Among the best”.
So what you’re really trying to say is that you come to a BB site because you’re just flat out stupid and have been rejected by society.
Seriously, go away. You’ve been rejected here too.
I hate to ask a question that has already been asked, but, RIM does get paid when a carrier subsidizes the price of a BlackBerry, don’t they? And when subsidized BlackBerrys are activated with BIS or BES, they get a check for too, correct?
Correct. Carriers will give away phones to bait new customers when a product is slowing down. Carriers will make their money on the phone charges and charge a penalty if you decide to leave early (to cover at least part of the cost of the phone, if not all). RIM gets $$$ via the physical phone they sell to the carrier as well as the email service. VZW is moving BB’s for free on a buy-one-get-one to simply increase subscribers and reduce inventory in anticipation of new products on the horizon (Tour, Peal Flip, Storm 2).
“bluehorseshoe 05.04.09 at 10:45 pm
So what you’re really trying to say is that you come to a BB site because you’re just flat out stupid and have been rejected by society.
Seriously, go away. You’ve been rejected here too.”
SO DESPERATE, SO off topic, SO worried about what others have to say. Yet again bluehorseshoe rimarkable is NOT your personal space to make your desperate comments about others. Grow up.
Phone carrier in US suck!!
You pay high monthly fee to cover the hardware cost (subsidizes).
However, if you purchase your own hardware, you still pay the same “high” monthly fee. If you don’t sign any contract (because you have your own phone), you pay more monthly charge or they don’t let you to sign up at all.
Customer pay more if they buy their own hardware. No wonder the rich get richer.
“Buy One Blackberry Get One Free” is what the postcard ads scream at me when I open the mailbox (along with the usual bills) and what I see on TV.
I wonder how many iPhones Apple would sell if they gave away half of their phones?
The iPhone is a PSP with a phone stuffed in it, if you have one I hope you enjoy it, the truth as I see it is that the iPhone is a Chevrolet, the BlackBerry is a Rolls Royce, they will both take you to the store its just that the Rolls will do it with so much more class and reliability.