US BlackBerry Market Share Continues To Plummet

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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]

RIM Tried To Buy Palm — “Had To Work Incredibly Hard To Blow It”

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According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a source close to the negotiations said that Apple, Google, and Research in Motion all tried to acquire Palm.

The source stated that RIM pretty much had the deal in its hands, however, “had to work incredibly hard to blow it”.

BerryReview.com puts it best when they say that, even though RIM failed at buying Palm, they could learn a thing or two…  “Don’t hang onto a legacy OS so long that even a complete overhaul can’t save you…“

Who Will Buy Palm? The Fire Sale Is On

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This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone but, maybe, CEO Jon Rubinstein, however, the inevitable Palm buyout is imminent.  According to Bloomberg, Palm is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, although the company has not officially said that they are doing so as of yet.

The big question for everyone is who will the buyer be? Both HTC and Lenovo have expressed interest.  I’ve been saying for years that RIM should have picked the company up if for nothing more than the intellectual property.  My guess is that there are a few big companies that might be interested.

Who do you think will buy Palm?  Whomever it is will get on heck of a consumer oriented mobile operating system in webOS.

So, I Bought A Palm Pre…

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If you’ve read more than 2 or 3 posts here on RIMarkable, you’ve probably gathered that I am a pretty big fan of the BlackBerry.  Some would even call me a BlackBerry Fanboy…  That being said, I recently bought a Palm Pre Plus from Verizon.  I’d be willing to bet, however, that it was for reasons other than what you are thinking…

To make a long story short, if you are at all interested in a Verizon MiFi 2200, strongly consider the Palm Pre Plus or Palm Pixi Plus as an alternative…

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BlackBerry Still #1, But, Android Is Coming On Strong

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When it comes to smartphone market share in the United States, the BlackBerry is still king of the hill according to a recent report by comScore, however, Android is coming on strong.

For the three month period ending Feb. 10, RIM’s percentage of market share was 42.1%, up 1.3% from the same period a year earlier.  Android is still just a fraction of the total smartphone market at 9%, however, they were the only other platform to actually increase share, up 5.2%  year over year.  Apple remained relatively flat, down 0.1%, and Palm and Microsoft lost share, with -1.8% and -4.0% drops year over year.

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Note To RIM — Buy Palm… Just In Case…

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As some of you long time RIMarkable readers may know, I am on the record several times stating that Research in Motion should buy Palm.  The last time that I felt strongly about this was back in late 2008 before webOS came out and Palm’s stock price was down under $2.00.

Even though webOS is a strong mobile operating system, in my opinion, Palm just can’t seem to get right when it comes to running the company.  Their stock price today (at the time of this posting) is down 19% or so to $4.60 and the downward spiral, according to some analysts, is going to continue downward to $0.  (I’ve never heard of a $0 target before)

I will go on the record again…

Research in Motion should buy Palm!

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Palm Takeover Rumors Sends Stock Up Even Though Big Miss On The Street Is Expected

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Palm reports today the COB and it is expected that they are going to have a pretty big miss on earnings… $0.43-$0.48 per share.  Normally you would see companies stock price in this situate tank, however, Palm has been on an upward journey most of the day.  The reason for this, I’m guessing, is that Palm is a prime takeover target about right now and the rumor mill is churning.