Is RIM Riding on the Edge?

Research in Motion was the only player for a time, but it wasn’t equipped for a competitive market. Though it still occupies a dominant position in the U.S. Smartphone market, there are rumblings that the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry — a phone once so addictive to its predominantly corporate audience that it gained the nickname “CrackBerry” — is in danger of being overshadowed by its rivals.

RIM has already lost significant ground since the launch of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android-based devices.

This fall, Research in Motion (RIM) is launching an armada of new Smartphone devices based on its BlackBerry 7 operating system — 147 launches with 90 carriers in 30 countries — in a big bet that it can reverse an ongoing slide in market share.

Take a look at some key figures & trends at RIM:

• This month, a Forrester Research survey revealed that BlackBerry has 42% of the market among Smartphone-toting information workers, but Apple and Android combined have 48%.
• A recent survey by Nielsen reveals that in August, 56% of smartphone buyers chose an Android device, followed by an iPhone at 28%. BlackBerry devices were chosen by 9%.
• RIM’s global Smartphone market share in the second quarter was 11.7%, down from 18.7% a year ago, according to research firm Gartner. Android market share was 43.4% in the quarter, up from 17.2% a year ago, and Apple’s share was 18.2%, up from 14.1% a year ago.
• RIM’s key figures also show the strain. On September 15, the company reported net income of $319 million for the second quarter, down from $797 million a year ago. Revenue in the same quarter was down 15% from a year ago to $4.2 billion. The company shipped 10.6 million BlackBerry smartphones during that period, after promising to ship 11 million to 12.5 million three months earlier. It also shipped 200,000 of its newly launched PlayBook tablet devices — half of what Wall Street expected.

RIM may have a reasonable chance at keeping existing customers. A recent Morgan Stanley survey of 1,852 cell phone users found that 46% of U.S. BlackBerry owners plan to upgrade in the next six months. Sixty percent of that group says they plan to buy a BlackBerry 7 device. The survey also reveals that 7% of existing Android owners plan an upgrade to BlackBerry 7, and 5% of current iPhone owners will follow suit. “The company has to renew itself” to avoid being overtaken by its rivals, “and that’s not an easy thing to do.”

 

 

Posted by technlogic on September 29, 2011

https://technlogic.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/is-rim-riding-on-the-edge/