The Squeeze On BlackBerry

Although the BlackBerry may be to email what the Ipod is to music, Research in Motion does not want their business to go the way of Apple Computer. The Macintosh once dominated the PC landscape but Apple’s refusal to license their OS to other hardware manufacturers has turned what some still consider to be the best personal computer ever developed to just a novelty in the business world. Although RIM currently dominates the wireless email market, there are estimates that the total market is 35 million users. RIM just went over 2 million users in mid November and all of the other players combined don’t yet have a million users. This means that well over 90% of the market still goes untapped and you can bet that the big dogs want to get a piece of pie. This is why RIM has started licensing their messaging software to third party hardware vendors like Motorola, Nokia, etc. They even have a deal with PalmSource, who currently, is their biggest competitor.