RIM is currently in the middle of a lull period for their devices. They haven’t come out with any new substantial products since the Bold 9900, Torch 9810 and Torch 9860 were launched last year. These all run the BlackBerry 7 OS and coming up in the “later part” of this year will be their new BlackBerry 10 OS. Six weeks from now RIM will be showcasing the new OS at BlackBerry World. This morning we just received an email stating that one of the highlights of BlackBerry World will be “RIM’s vision for the future of mobile computing which is based on the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform”.
RIM’s sliding smartphone market share in Canada is nothing new, unfortunately somewhat expected. One of the latest reports from comScore suggested that RIM, at the end of 2011, had 32.6% smartphone market share in Canada, this is down from 42% in June. Apparently Canadians are shifting towards other devices manufacturers, such as Apple’s iPhone, or various Android manufacturers.
Today, a report from Bloomberg and IDC reveals the same slip in market share, but have come out with an estimation of specific shipping numbers. RIM shipped 2.08 million BlackBerry smartphones in Canada last year – this apparently represents 7% their total revenue. Apple, according to the report, shipped 2.85 million iPhones in Canada last year. There’s no mention of Google’s Android or where Samsung is positioned.
Paul Taylor, a fund manager from BMO Harris Private Banking, stated that “For RIM, in its home market, to lose that No. 1 position to iPhone is strategically important… It does identify, even with a home-country bias, how consumers are responding to the greater functionality of the iPhone.”
Source: Bloomberg
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