iPhone Vs. BlackBerry: Apple Now Has Bigger Slice Of The Pie
A report released by Canalys shows that Apple has grabbed 17.3 percent of the smartphone market, placing it second in the world with growth of 523 percent from third-quarter 2007 to third-quarter 2008. Meanwhile, RIM's share surged 83.5 percent to capture 15.2 percent of the smartphone market. Nokia still leads the pack with 38.9 percent market share, even though Nokia's market share shrunk 3.4 percent from third-quarter 2007 to third-quarter 2008, which marks the first time the Finnish mobile device producer has lost ground.
Smartphones continue to sell, with a tad less than 40 million sold in the third quarter of 2008. These types of mobile devices now represent about 13 percent of the total mobile phone market, according to Canalys.
Pete Cunningham, Canalys senior analyst, expected the iPhone to perform well in sales and market share, but he is impressed by just how well Apple's iPhone did.
"It was expected that Apple would figure among the smartphone leaders this quarter, with that huge initial new product shipment—it was just a question of how high up it would be—and this is impressive," said Cunningham.
Cunningham attributes Apple's solid numbers to the initial excitement the iPhone created when Apple announced its 3G model. Expanding the iPhone's reach into other countries also undoubtedly played a role in its huge market-share gain. And adding an easy way for iPhone users to access Microsoft Exchange e-mail made the iPhone more attractive to customers looking to integrate the device into their work life.
While Apple's push for the enterprise seems inevitable, RIM isn't about to lie down and let Steve Jobs and company take over an arena it has come to dominate. It's also worth noting that these statistics reflect sales from the third-quarter—before the launch of the BlackBerry Bold and the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, which just hit the market. And don't overlook RIM's first foray into the touch-screen arena with the BlackBerry Storm, expected to hit the shelves sometime this month.
But even without these products available to enterprise and consumer customers, RIM shipped more than 6 million devices, a huge gain from last year.
"This is also a tremendous performance, especially considering the delays it experienced in rolling out the BlackBerry Bold," Cunningham said. "Some customers will also have been waiting for the Storm to arrive. With these new products and the clamshell Pearl 8220 available in Q4, it is quite feasible that RIM will return to the No. 2 position."
The BlackBerry is the gold standard by which enterprise customers judge all other smartphones and that's unlikely to change any time soon.
If Apple's initial shot across the bow at RIM was the Exchange support, then RIM is returning fire with the BlackBerry Storm, its first touchscreen device, showing that RIM is locked and loaded and prepared to take the fight for market share to Apple on its own turf. You can almost imagine a group of RIM executives in a boardroom saying, "If Jobs wants to dip into our enterprise market segment, let's go after his share of the consumer market."
One thing is for sure: The smartphone space is getting more competitive as customers take a shine to the advanced interfaces and other bells and whistles that are becoming part and parcel of the smartphone wars.
"With competition in the smartphone space heating up, being able to introduce technology and user interface enhancements quickly is critical," said Tim Shepherd, Canalys analyst. "You also need to be able to integrate them seamlessly into the device to provide a great total user experience. And that means having sufficient control of development of the operating system, which Apple and RIM clearly have already."