comScore released its March 2011 report on mobile subscriber market share last Friday, and, when it comes to the the smartphone category, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry continues to lose subscribers at an alarming rate dropping 4.5%, now sitting at 27.1%, in the 3 month avg. ending Mar. 2011 vs. 3 month avg. ending Dec. 2010.
The BlackBerry has slipped to number 2 behind Android who jumped up 6% to 34.7% U.S. share. The BlackBerry is still in front of the iPhone which had just a .5% increase in share now sitting at 25.5%. If the BlackBerry, however, continues the free-fall that it has been on for the better part of the last 18 months, it will slip to number 3 by the time the next comScore report comes out. Rounding out the smartphone category where Microsoft and Palm who both lost 0.9% market share dropping to 7.5% and 2.8% respectively…
[Via comScore]
Based partly on “customer hesitation” with Nokia as it shifts away from Symbian towards Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS on smartphones and also a much larger smartphone market than most had expected, National Bank Financial analyst, Kris Thompson, has bumped up his BlackBerry shipment forecasts in 2012 and 2013 up to 66.8 million BlackBerrys in 2012 and 77.3 million units in 2013, up from 59.9 million and 67.9 million respectively.
“We previously suggested that RIM could win an additional one million units per quarter in the near term from Nokia’s transition so our 2012 estimate could be conservative. While we do expect RIM to lose market share in international markets, the company may hold share better than many expect.”
Thompson also raised his price target for RIM (RIMM) from $75 to $80 and stated that if RIM does allow Android Apps to run on it’s platform that NBF’s tablet forecast for RIM will need to be increased.
[Via Financial Post]
Arguably the biggest tech news to come out over the past week is the agreement between Nokia and Microsoft where the Finnish mobile phone giant will start to build smartphones that run Windows Phone 7. It looks like, however, Microsoft wasn’t the first or only mobile OS manufacturer that Nokia was interested in. TechCrunch Europe is reporting that Nokia explored a relationship with RIM where Nokia devices would have run the BlackBerry OS, but, RIM wasn’t interested in such a partnership.
According to our well-placed sources, discussions between the two companies took place as Nokia in parallel explored the Google and Microsoft options. How far those discussions went isn’t entirely clear, although our source says that RIM wasn’t interested, but either way the fact that they took place at all is intriguing in itself. Not least because Elop has since attempted to airbrush out RIM’s place in the competitive landscape.
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Listen Now:
Hosts: Rod Simmons, Chris Ashley, Robb Dunewood
- Recorded: February 6th, 2011
- Published: February 7th, 2011
- Duration: 1hr 26min 04sec
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SHOW TOPICS
RIM’s market share trouble continues
- Rod says a report has two out of three BlackBerry users are switching to the Verizon iPhone
- Robb says he is one of the two
Verizon has a few things going on this week
- Rod mentions that Verizon has broken its sales records with the iPhone
- Rod also says that he is worried about Verizon throttling there heavy users
- Chris says Verizon is doing this to protect their network
- Robb is wondering how Verizon will count the 5 percent
We Talk about RIM needing to get the Playbook out sooner than later
- Rod thinks that the new iPad could hurt the Playbook sales it it comes out first
- Robb agrees
- Chris thinks that people are not quite looking for “Tablets”
- Arguments begin
Google announces the Android Web Market
- Chris says they are copying Microsoft
- Robb really likes the online aspect
- Rod says Microsoft needs to stop tethering
Mentioned Links
PICKS OF THE WEEK
- The Daily iPad (Only the free version ) Robb Dunewood (RIMarkable)
- Rim’s podcast app (Podcast app for BlackBerry ) Rod Simmons (SimpleMobileReview)
- Chicks ‘n’ Vixens / Boston Acoustic HIS 275 (Phone 7 App / In Wall Speakers ) Chris Ashley (SimpleMobileReview)
Opening Song
Buy Watch Out Now by Beatnuts on Amazon Buy Watch Out Now by Beatnuts on iTunes
We haven’t talked much if at all about the Microsoft Kin One or Kin Two, however, Best Buy has dropped their respective prices to $0 and $50 on two year contracts which make these devices a bit more interesting by way of being incredibly inexpensive. Not only do the Kins cost less than most smartphones or even feature phones, Best Buy’s pricing puts them into the range of standard mobile phones… You remember, the ones that you used to just make and receive phone calls on back in the day.
Microsoft must have spent a pretty penny on marketing of the Kin One and Kin Two because you see commercials for the devices during any network programing that has a target audience remotely close to the demographic MS is going after with the Kins. It will be interesting to see how well the Best Buy does with these devices. I’m guessing pretty well.
[Via Engadget]
Two months ago today Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7, the all new Windows mobile operating system that will be a lot more like the Zune than it is the current version of Windows Mobile. Windows Phone 7 isn’t an upgrade, but, a completely new direction in mobile operating systems for Microsoft. Even though Windows Phone 7 isn’t due out until the latter part of this year, I know all this because, to put it mildly, Microsoft has been hyping Windows Phone 7 up beyond all belief…
I’m not sure if RIM has noticed, but, a lot of BlackBerry users are dissatisfied with the BlackBerry, particularly the BlackBerry OS and its lack of general “coolness” when compared to… well… pretty much everything else. A real problem this year for RIM will be customer churn, as long-time, die-hard, BlackBerry fanatics that automatically update to the latest and greatest BlackBerry every couple of years, are increasingly looking at alternatives like the iPhone, Android, and even Windows Phone 7.
[click to continue…]
Microsoft has put out a video (that’s supposed to go viral) for Microsoft Office 2010 and several times in the video you can clearly see the actors using BlackBerry devices. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a big deal because a lot of people use BlackBerry devices, however, when you create a competing device, one that for years has been hammered by the BlackBerry, you would think someone might have thought to use a mobile device running Windows.
The video, which is supposed to play like a preview for an upcoming series of 24 or a trailer for a Jerry Burckheimer movie, although kind of cheesy, is actually quite well done. There is no doubt that Microsoft paid a pretty coin for this . Too bad for Microsoft, however, that Reasearch in Motion will get as much if not more publicity out of this for the BlackBerry as they themselves get for Office 2010…
Check Out “Office 2010: The Movie”
In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft released the Zune HD today. I wonder how long it will be before they put a wireless radio into one of these puppies and call it a smartphone?
