According to the Associated Press, RIM (Research In Motion) has gained a whopping 9.4% market share between the 4th quarter of 2007 and the 1st quarter of 2008. This raises RIM to 44.5% of all smart phones in use today. The iPhone is holding 19.2% market share down from 26.7%. And Palm devices have 13.4% from 7.9%, this all according to the research firm IDC.
RIM: RIM's market share increase could be attributed to the introduction of new devices, new options, new features, upgraded software, multiple carriers, and the availability to easily and cheaply install third party applications. RIM has been targeting business and large organizations and many of these organizations have held a hard line on limiting functionality on their devices. Things like cameras, voice recorders, and the ability to configure third party applications and services like rss, email, and GPS. However, good for RIM, they put the pieces in place with the most recent release of BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This allows administrators to lock down these features while still providing full functionality that meets the business needs.
iPhone: The iPhone likely lost most of its numbers because of lack of availability in the first quarter. The first generation iPhone has been very limited in numbers due to the second generation iPhone is due to be released anytime. As of today you still cannot purchase an iPhone from the Apple Store. The decline could also be attributed to; no new options, no new features, not available from multiple carriers, and the inability to install third party applications. The iPhone also is a consumer device first and foremost which hurts it greatly when competing with a business first device like the BlackBerry.
Palm: Wow, they still make those?
Posted by
Mike Wright
