Research in Motion posted first quarter results for fiscal year 2010 yesterday and, for only the second time in its history, the BlackBerry maker saw a decline in subscriber growth dropping to 3.8 million net new subscribers down from 3.9 million the previous quarter. The rest of RIMs numbers were pretty good and the BlackBerry actually saw on overall increase in its U.S. leading market share.
“We are starting fiscal 2010 with strong financial performance and impressive market share gains, including a 55% share of the U.S. smartphone market according to IDC’s latest estimate,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at RIM. “The industry leading BlackBerry product portfolio is driving strong customer demand around the world and our penetration of new market segments continues to expand. We are particularly excited about the strength of our product portfolio for fiscal 2010 and we are looking forward to driving continued growth and profitability in our business throughout the remainder of the year.”
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It probably doesn’t come as a huge surprise that the BlackBerry, according to report by Maribel Lopez , formerly of Forrester Research, tops the list when it comes to mobile security in smartphones.
The report, Successful Mobile Deployments Require Robust Security, rated mobile devices in 4 different categories on a 4-point scale. The BlackBerry received a 4 out of 4 rating in each category.
You can check the full report out here…
[Via CrackBerry]
Contrary to popular belief the iPhone is not the most sold smartphone in the United States. That title goes to the BlackBerry Curve who has pretty much maintained it’s seat on top of the smartphone hill of dominance since the quarter that the iPhone was introduced.
Based on U.S. consumer sales of smartphone handsets in NPD’s “Smartphone Market Update” report, the first-quarter 2009 ranking of the top-five best- selling smartphones is as follows:
1. RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models)
2. Apple iPhone 3G (all models)
3. RIM BlackBerry Storm
4. RIM BlackBerry Pearl (all models, except flip)
5. T-Mobile G1
What is more impressive than the BlackBerry Curve holding the number 1 spot is that the BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Pearl hold the number 3 and 4 spots respectively giving RIM 3 of the top 4 selling smartphones. No matter how you look at it, RIM is selling a lot more BlackBerrys than is Apple iPhones. No wonder Apple is looking to bring the iPhone to Verizon.
[Via Silicon Alley Insider]
So, RIM has decided to get into the blogging game and has launched Inside BlackBerry… The Official BlackBerry Blog. I wonder if it will have any legs?
The BlackBerry Support Community Forums have just celebrated their first birthday and with hundreds of thousands of posts in their first year, one has to admit that RIM has been pretty successful as far as their forums go. It will be interesting to see, however, if they can capture lightning in a bottle twice.
Inside BlackBerry has a team of bloggers so they should be able to pump out content pretty regularly. They aren’t privy to most of the hot topics they know you love to speculate on — RIM’s financials, unreleased products, pricing and carrier information. So unfortunately they won’t be commenting on these areas.
You can check out the official BlackBerry Blog over at blogs.blackberry.com. Just don’t forget about the good ole <shameless plug>Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog</shameless plug> that has been running since 2004…
Read
Contrary to what we thought was going to happen, Alltel, not Verizon, will be the first carrier to offer the CDMA BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 here in the United States. The first CDMA clamshell style flip-phone BlackBerry should be hitting the street in early May and will set you back $79.99 after a $70 mail-in rebate.
Read the press release…
BlackBerry OS 5.0.0.90 for the BlackBerry Bold has been leaked. This is not an officially released OS so make sure that you know what you are doing if you decide to try it out. We hear that it is a beast to downgrade back after you install it.
If you decide to give BB OS 5.0 for the Bold a go you can download it from the link below.
BlackBerry OS 5.0 for the BlackBerry Bold >>>
Word on the street is that the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 is heading to U.S. Cellular. The Pearl Flip is the clamshell version of the popular Pearl, has a 2-megapixel camera, 2.6-inch QVGA main display, stereo Bluetooth, and a slot for microSD card.
No official details on pricing , however, the Pearl Flip should show up on U.S. Wireless in the June time frame.
[Via phoneArena]
Alain Segond von Banchet, Channel Sales Manager at RIM, talked on the record with Dutch tech site Tweakers.net about the rumored BlackBerry Storm 2. The device, which still hasn’t been officially named, will offer a new way to enter text and will launch towards the end of this year or the beginning of next. Although von Banhchet did come out say it, it is expected that the BlackBerry Storm 2 will have Wi-Fi as well.
Unlike the BlackBerry Storm, the BlackBerry Storm 2 will not be exclusive to Vodafone. It will be interesting to see if the CDMA version of the BlackBerry Storm 2 comes out on more than just Verizon here in the States.
[Via Engadget Mobile]
One of BGR’s ninjas has got the deets on three new 9000 series BlackBerry devices code named Onyx, Driftwood, and Magnum:
BlackBerry Onyx
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
- GPS
- Camera
- Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
- QWERTY keyboard
- 480×360 resolution screen
- Confirmed carriers: AT&T
BlackBerry Driftwood
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
- GPS
- Camera
- Wi-Fi with UMA
- QWERTY keyboard
BlackBerry Magnum
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
- GPS
- Camera
- Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
- QWERTY keyboard
- 480×360 resolution screen
- Confirmed carriers: AT&T
