Apple steals number 2 spot from RIM in smartphone battle
The results are in and news now hitting the smartphone world is that Nokia is slipping down from the peak of the mountain while Apple and RIM work their way to the top. With only the iPhone and iPhone 3G, Apple has managed to step over RIM’s shoulders to take the number two spot in the smartphone world with 17.3% of the market share. RIM, however, isn’t too far behind with 15.2% and climbing with anticipation of the Storm’s release mounting. Nokia, meanwhile, can’t help but sit and watch as it sees its market share drop to 38.9% from 51.4% the year before. Apple is undoubtedly snatching up Nokia and RIM’s business with the iPhone 3G, having sold nearly 7 million units since its official release on July 11. With those sales, Apple is not just second in the smartphone war but it now accounts for 2.3% of the overall mobile phone market - not bad after just a year and a half in business! Still, with two up-and-comers battling and plenty of momentum, Nokia and the Symbian OS remain on top of the pile as the ones to beat. All they have to do now is figure out how to hold the other two down, and that is going to take something pretty big.
Tags: Apple, BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia, RIM, Smartphones, Symbian
2.3% of the phone market…makes me think apple’s goal is world domination!
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“With only the iPhone and iPhone 3G, Apple has managed to step over RIM’s shoulders to take the number two spot in the smartphone world with 17.3% of the market share.”
1stGen iPhone sales aren’t included in these results. It was only the iPhone 3G.
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once the Storm drops and the new curve, apple will loose that lead..RIM had nothing in the pipe-line for a while which allowed the iphone to dominate, now the iphone is old news and RIM has a solid 3-4 new phones coming out…
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Gotta give mad props to Apple… but the fanboys are going to be even more insufferable than normal.
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jbru,
I think that Apple will be in the lead for a bit longer simply because the people I know that own iPhones, their favourite things about it are about the GUI/ease of use & the apps. ONCE RIM gets its act together & opens up the SDK a bit more for Storm & the Bold, I agree with you that RIM will take back over at #2. I am in London for the next week & the only 2 smartphone manufacturers I have seen in abundance are Apple & Nokia.
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2.3% is nothing - a lot of “dumb” phones. But of course that also varies on how you determine what a “smart” phone is. My old Samsung A727 could get E-mail, due stereo bluetooth, send sms & mms, internet radio & internet video and even had a calendar.Is that considered a smartphone or would that be lumped into a “dumb” phone category? It’s a real fuzzy line.
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Storm, Bold, Cruve II, need I say more
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I agree, RIM will take the lead back with the Storm, Bold and Javelin all out or out soon.
I will say though, the next gen iPhone which will probably drop next fall, I suspect will be quite different and probably much better than the current version.
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Oh please!
The iphone was launched on July 11th.. that means RIM almost matched apple for phone sales without even launching a new phone in the quarter.. well the bold was only available in a few places in the 3rd quarter..
We’ll see how the 4th quarter plays out with the Bold, Storm, the flip and the Javelin all coming out.. Don’t be surprised to see RIM double Apple in this quarter.
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i agree…considering that there was nothing new to offer from RIM for the majority of the quarter and the fact that the bold has just now been released in the states, this will change next quarter ESPECIALLY if they can get the storm out before Christmas.
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“that means RIM almost matched apple for phone sales without even launching a new phone in the quarter..”
The BlackBerry is a lineup of phones at various prices from free on up, on all networks in the US (both CDMA and GSM) and more carriers in more countries around the world.
Why would they need a new phone to outsell a single one from Apple? Do you know how absurd that sounds?
If they’d create sufficient demand for their product, they should be able to outsell the iPhone with the BlackBerry Pearl alone.
Imagine if Apple had multiple iPhones at various prices like the iPod, including an iPhone nano at $99. RIM would never be able to catch up.
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RIM and apple will go back and forth in #2. just depends on who has the newest device(s).
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Come on guys. Don’t you think all the manufacturers and carriers want a piece of the pie? There’s a reason why tthese things don’t all come out at once.
Is it possible that part of the delay to bring the Bold to the market was to give Apple some space and get users from Sprint?
Maybe that’s the reason why is the Storm taking a long time to come out? To give ATT some time to sell the Bold and steal customers from T-Mobo?
Next is RIM and its fantabuluous touch blackberry, which will also steal customers from Sprint (they really do suck).
Carriers take out their flagship handhelds at least during one quarter per year to make a huge profit. Think about it. What other device from ATT has made a big splash that is not the Bold or iPhone? Same for VZW and the Storm?
They don’t compete with each other at the same time or they will kill themselves. Instead they get customers to buy one phone, hate it, pay their term fees and move to the next, and so on, thus spending exhorbitant amounts of money each time. How many of you carry more than one cell? End of story.
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well, blame the isheep that think that phone is so great. i played with one, its very slow/laggy. for such a hyped phone i expected near perfection….not moto like.
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This is ABSURD. Why?
1. iPhone was not on sale for a full TWO MONTHS before the 3G launch, so this data for Apple represents FIVE MONTHS of demand that was increased because…
2. The typical new product SURGE for Apple fanatics who upgraded without compunction.
Normalize the 6.9 million over 5 months, and you get a true APPLES TO APPLES comparison of about 4.1 million phones over a 3 month period. Why is this so hard for folks to grasp?
Apple’s performance even at 4.1 million phone is still amazing no matter how you slice it though…
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Nokia needs to step up their game. They’ve been pretty fat and docile.
It’d be nice if the open up some of their stuff than just Ovi. The friend finder looks cool, but not so worthwhile when most of your friends own Blackberries. And what is with the 2.5 mm headjack on the E-series? Even the Bold’s gone 3.5 mm. I think they need to bridge their gap between the N-series and E-series for those of us who work and play hard on one device.
I like my Macs but Apple’s attitude with their iPhone is still overbearing. I wouldn’t really trade my Blackberry for another phone for work, but the Blackberry has to be more “fun” to be my full-time phone. Let’s start with getting You Tube on there.
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Storm will crush everything…or blow it away
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I still like the bold over the iphone
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People who are really jealous of Apple’s success are denying and will keep on denying the fact how innovative and smart the company APPLE is.
“Behind every successful entity there are many jealous entities.”
People who are hoping that BB Storm will bring back RIMMs glory days are day dreaming.
Do you all Storm dreamers think that after releasing iPhone, Iphone 3g apple is just sitting idle and waiting for the competition to take lead.
Right now, all the competitors are struggling just to create a good touch screen phone. Apple must have already moved forward and started working on the next generation iPhone. Wait for January MacWorld. Apple must be laughing at RIMMs Storm launch delays.
Let the competition play the catchup game. Apple will be always ahead of them.
See what happened in iPod market.
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I just got the Bold the other day and this thing is AWESOME. The screen, is just awesome. I thought my iPhone 3G’s screen was good. Compared to the Bold, it looks like a dull, washed out TN panel.
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I just dropped my nextel and bought a Bold. It is such a better phone then my friends iphones. I am truly impressed and I believe RIM will be back on top of apple in no time.
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Nokia is #1? WTF? I’ve never even SEEN a nokia smartphone and I have had a butt loads of smartphones from all carriers over the years and been in Tech/IT industry for a decade having to fix other peoples smartphones? How in the hell is Nokia #1 in smartphones and I’ve never even seen a nokia smartphone?
WTF?
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1st and foremost the iPhone isn’t a smartphone. I’ve owned damn near every WinMo phone that has come out since 2002 and currently own a 1st gen iPhone & a 3G and it sorely lacks the qualifications to be counted as a smartphone. It’s nothing more than an iPod with a phone tacked onto!!
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@scott
Nokia is number 1 worldwide. Not in the us. Nok is HUGE in europe because the entire portfolio is symbian which is a smartphone OS, except for s40 I think.
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You must live in the United States.
Move on.
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