It's easy to think that Apple and Google are leading the smart-phone race.
Apple released its iPhone 4 a week ago and promptly sold 1.7 million of them in three days. Earlier, Google said about 160,000 phones running its Android operating system were being activated daily.
But the two companies still trail the North America leader, Research In Motion. RIM's BlackBerry devices control 35 percent of the U.S. market, compared with 28 percent for the iPhone and 9 percent for Android, according to the Nielsen Co., a research firm.
But the numbers belie a significant shift as RIM's market share - which five years ago was more than 50 percent - erodes in the face of increased competition.
By 2012, Gartner predicts, Android will become the second-best-selling smart-phone platform worldwide behind worldwide leader Symbian, closely followed by the iPhone. RIM, currently in second place worldwide, will fall into fourth place.
RIM finds itself at a crossroads. Its aging smart phones remain essential to businesses and continue to gain users. But compared with iPhone and Android devices, BlackBerrys have less broad appeal and generate less loyalty from customers and developers.
The next year may prove critical in determining whether BlackBerrys can compete in the new age of powerful smart phones or become yesterday's technology.
'Pressure is on'
"The pressure is on RIM," said Ramon Llamas, an analyst with research firm IDC. "Under the old 'CrackBerry' usage model, people wanted a BlackBerry for e-mail and messaging, but you can do that on an iPhone and an Android phone. Other platforms have helped push the paradigm of using smart phones not just for phone calls and messaging."
RIM is planning to step up its game later this year with a more robust operating system, BlackBerry 6.0, and new devices are rumored to include a slider touch-screen that will blend some of the iPhone cool with RIM's trademark physical keyboard. The Canadian company also updated its application store App World earlier this month.
Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie said during the company's quarterly earnings call last week that BlackBerry is well positioned for the brewing battle, with big international growth ahead, strong carrier partnerships in place and an efficient data infrastructure that will become more important as cellular operators adopt tiered data pricing.
Balsillie avoided specific talk about the company's plans for the second half of this year but hinted at significant innovations and marketing campaigns.
"We have an exciting line of products, services and promotions expected to be introduced between now and the end of the fiscal year, and we believe that these, together with the introduction of new tiered service pricing in the U.S. and around the world, are setting the stage for an acceleration of growth," Balsillie said.
[sfgate]
