Research in Motion’s BlackBerry no longer sits atop the U.S. smartphone market share hill as it has been knocked down a spot to number two by the iPhone according to Nielsen’s numbers for October 2010. The iPhone has moved up to 27.9% share while the BlackBerry has moved down to 27.5%. Both RIM and Apple, however, lost share to Android who moved up to 22.7% with no sign of slowing down.
Perhaps a bigger issue for Research in Motion and the BlackBerry than its statistical dead heat with the iPhone is that feature phone owners looking to upgrade to a smartphone don’t want BlackBerry devices. Only 11% plan to get a BlackBerry compared to 28% wanting Android devices and 25% wanting iPhones. What may even be more alarming for RIM is that existing BlackBerry users don’t even really want new BlackBerry devices with only 15% looking to get a new BlackBerry.
[Readne]
Blackberry is the new Palm. I was underwhelmed in looking at OS6 and their new phone offerings. Hopefully they start innovating before its to late. The 9800 and 9780 are basically 9700’s with more memory. With what is available now I have no desire to own another BB.
It really is quite a shame that RIM appears to be going down the exact same road as Palm. The iPhone came out 4 years ago. RIM can’t keep using the excuse that it takes time to build a mobile OS because everyone else has and is blowing them out of the water feature by feature.
Did you hear that flushing sound? That’s the sound of RIM’s turd, the BB, circling the toilet bowl ready to go down.
I love how falling to # 2 equals death to some people. Will RIM dominate market share as is? Probably not. Will RIM die like Palm? Well, Palm isn’t quite dead yet (just on life support). Will some people migrate away from RIM? Surely. Let us not forget this was a phone that started as an e-mail device only. It wasn’t until the 7100, then Pearl and Curve, that Blackberry even tried to reach the consumer. You have to consider what made even Palm popular was the fact the device converged a lot of devices into one. Phone (check), media player (check), organizer (check), and full keyboard (check). Texting took off and people liked not having to multitap. Then people got hooked to using data on their phones (mostly by strong-arming as they couldn’t purchase device without data). What the Blackberry added, and did better than Palm, was e-mail. But, even with all that consumers generally carried around a Palm, or Blackberry, AND an iPod (or other mp3 player). A rare few chose to stick with the device media player. So, the iPhone was a natural hit that allowed there to be ONE device that did it all. Android and so forth are offering the same as iPhone albeit different methods (somewhat). This became the new norm for phones. RIM didn’t do a good job of going there along with the consumer.
4got to mention the Windows Mobile and Nokia devices (and other Symbian). So, there were about 4 big players in that space. Of course the newbies paid attention to what they didn’t and advanced. It’s the nature of things. Now, to see if they can reinvent. This debate won’t rest anytime soon. The pie may change, but the players won’t go away anytime soon.
Do you see anything coming from Blackberry that’s “exciting”? When the 9000 came out it was a desirable phone. What’s coming out now are basically refreshes of what’s worked in the past.
After trying OS6 on my 9700 I went back to OS5 quickly. Even if it came out as an carrier release I doubt I would install it.
Instead of evolution Blackberry needs a revolution.
I get what you are saying completely. My main point, though, was they aren’t dead yet. People are proclaiming them dead. I agree that they haven’t done anything exciting as of late (beyond purchases and potential new OS/UI), but they are still selling. I do wish they would stop putting out any refreshed devices and focus on whatever this reinvention will be though. Simplify the lineup and stop putting out devices with OS5 when you are up to OS6. I remember when a new blackberry came with at least a new look to the device and the latest OS version. I also wish they would just stop with the exclusives. It’s not in their best interest once they do come with that “great” new blackberry. It should be released to all carriers and let things fall where they may.
If RIM wants to salvage their reputation, they need to build a state of the art piece of hardware that is current and on the same tier as the iPhone quality wise and hope QNX can salvage what marketshare RIM is about to lose. I’ll still use a blackberry for business now, but it’s not the first phone I pick up to do anything with. OS 6 is 2 to 3 years late to the dance.
Thats what was suppose to happen and i predicted 1 year ago http://www.pakblogger.com/why-apple%E2%80%99s-iphone-is-the-only-real-blackberry-competitor. Blackberry, in my opinion, has to fight hard for second position looking at Android market share and their variety of options.