There was quite a buzz in Q3 2008 when Apple reported iPhone sales numbers that appeared to beat RIM’s BlackBerry sales for the first time. Even Steve Jobs bragged about "a spectacular performance by the iPhone -- we sold more phones than RIM." A closer look revealed the numbers might have been a bit skewed, but it was clear that the iPhone, a much newer device that is mostly unproven in the enterprise market, was gaining on the BlackBerry.
But the celebration may be premature. Recent numbers from IDC paint a different picture for Q4. According to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker from February 2009, the data for all converged devices (i.e., smartphones) shows that Research In Motion (RIM) increased its U.S. market share from 40.4% in Q3 2008 to 47.5% in Q4. Apple, on the other hand, lost market share in the U.S., dropping from 30.1% in Q3 2008 to 22.3% in Q4.
T-Mobile, HTC, Nokia, Verizon and LG also increased their market share in Q4, while Palm, Samsung, and Motorola decreased their shares.
In terms of unit sales, the Apple iPhone dropped from 6.89 million units in Q3 2008 to 4.36 million units in Q4 2008. RIM still has not announced its Q4 sales numbers (those figures will be released on April 2, 2009), but has said that sales of its new BlackBerry products, including the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm, continue to be above forecast and exceeding expectations.
A number of factors have likely led to this dramatic swing, including the launch of three new BlackBerry devices (the Storm, the Bold and the Curve 8900) as well as the Obama effect.
Melissa Chang (@mchang16) is the president of Pure Incubation, and her blog can be found at www.16thletter.com.
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Comments
It's one iPhone versus a slew of RIM models. Ask who's "leading" the growth sector and paving the road for consumer focussed smart phone. I would like to also see the breakdown between RIM's corporate bing purchases versus individual consumer transaction.
You neglect to mention the poor Outlook/Exchange integration offered by the iPhone, which is the number one reason I know of why colleagues are no longer interested in iPhones: Meeting updates often cause meetings to disappear, the iPhone doesn't understand proposed calendar changes and you can't book meetings from the iPhone.
Glitches like that were understandable early on, but Apple has made no motion to fix these and other bugs in the year and half since then.
LOL go figure Apple fan boys would do anything to win. funny how nobody besides a few sites like this dares to stick it to apple.
Cheers
Android.
Interesting story considering the incomplete data. What RIM "says" means nothing when it comes to the final numbers. We'll see in the months ahead. As an owner of an iPhone, I'm not too worried about the Blackberry. In fact, it's clearly the other way around. RIM is trying to incorporate as many iPhone-like features in the Storm and future models.
Cheers!
As a user who switched from a iPhone 3G to a Blackberry Bold and never looked back, I am happy to see these sales numbers for RIM. I also found a cooler toy then my old iPhone. It's my new Maserati, and my Blackberry's reliable push email and business integration helped get me my new toy =)
Matt - the data is actually available already.
The IDC data covers the same three months
(Oct-Dec) for both RIM and Apple. RIM sold
more than twice the number than Apple
with RIM's market share at 47.5% versus
Apple's market share at 22.3%. The numbers
that RIM will report are for their fiscal Q4
which covers Dec/Jan/Feb and RIM just
reiterated their guidance last week for over
7.5 million devices in fiscal Q4. Apple is doing
well against Microsoft and I'm not knocking
them, but RIM is by far the clear market
share leader with the most momentum these
days.
Eituc - more than half of RIM's sales to new
customers now come from consumer versus
businesses, but you can't just dismiss their
success in business, especially since Apple
tried and failed to get traction in the business
market (if it wasn't important, why did
Apple waste its time and money trying
to penetrate the business market, although
it's a fair enough point that Apple is no
longer trying to win the business market).
And c'mon. You don't really think that
Apple would sell substantially more with
more models. They would split their market
just like RIM with less consumers per model.
You can't knock RIM for giving customers
choice.
Matt - the data is actually available already.
The IDC data covers the same three months
(Oct-Dec) for both RIM and Apple. RIM sold
more than twice the number than Apple
with RIM's market share at 47.5% versus
Apple's market share at 22.3%. The numbers
that RIM will report are for their fiscal Q4
which covers Dec/Jan/Feb and RIM just
reiterated their guidance last week for over
7.5 million devices in fiscal Q4. Apple is doing
well against Microsoft and I'm not knocking
them, but RIM is by far the clear market
share leader with the most momentum these
days.
Eituc - more than half of RIM's sales to new
customers now come from consumer versus
businesses, but you can't just dismiss their
success in business, especially since Apple
tried and failed to get traction in the business
market (if it wasn't important, why did
Apple waste its time and money trying
to penetrate the business market, although
it's a fair enough point that Apple is no
longer trying to win the business market).
And c'mon. You don't really think that
Apple would sell substantially more with
more models. They would split their market
just like RIM with less consumers per model.
You can't knock RIM for giving customers
choice.
@Steve, can you provide a link to the IDC data? The press release version lumps Apple and RIM in the Other category.
How many rim devices are we counting vs "ONE" iPhone? Plus IDC and NPD doesn't count Wal-mart in their estimates which iPhone just launched. Also blackberry devices are on multiple carriers. Not to mention apple could include the touch in these numbers since it is an iPhone without the phone.
apple fanboys abound. isn't it enough that both of these platforms are doing extremely well? that you'll find both platforms serve end customers very well and the ultimate choice comes down to the end user?
While both a state of the art mobile devices I think its clear to most power users that the Blackberry remains the king of corporate email. This distinction is very big and cannot be over-looked. From experience I can tell you that you can not keep up with 500 plus daily emails effectively using iPhone while that is very reasonable on a Blackberry like the bold or new Blackberry 8900.
I seem to have noticed that most of the reviewers that prefer the iphone already have an iphone. I recently purchase a storm and love it. I am still learning how to use it but the more I use it the better I like it. I had a Motorola V3 before and am a Verizon customer. I can't switch with out a lot of pain so a Blackberry was my only option. I haven't done a valid comparison between the iphone and the storm, I just saying that I am very happy with my Blackberry Storm.
Quote:
"How many rim devices are we counting vs "ONE" iPhone? Plus IDC and NPD doesn't count Wal-mart in their estimates which iPhone just launched. Also blackberry devices are on multiple carriers. Not to mention apple could include the touch in these numbers since it is an iPhone without the phone"
Well you can't really include an mp3 player in a smart phone comparison because...its not a phone. To obvious a flaw in your argument? Clearly not for fanboys.
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