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RIM's BlackBerry, Apple iPhone rule smartphone roost

By | February 9, 2010, 4:58am PST

Summary: Research in Motion’s BlackBerry platform has a comfortable lead in U.S. smartphone market share with Apple’s iPhone a solid No. 2, according to comScore data. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile comes in third place. The comScore data is notable as a contrast to the buzz-o-meter. For instance, RIM, which is sometimes portrayed as a has-been set to get [...]

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry platform has a comfortable lead in U.S. smartphone market share with Apple’s iPhone a solid No. 2, according to comScore data. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile comes in third place.

The comScore data is notable as a contrast to the buzz-o-meter. For instance, RIM, which is sometimes portrayed as a has-been set to get pummeled by the iPhone, holds 41.6 percent of the smartphone market in the U.S. based on platform. Apple has 25.3 percent.

Simply put, RIM and Apple control a little more than two-thirds of the market. The real surprise might be Microsoft at No. 3. Windows Mobile has 18 percent share as of December 31. Sure that’s down from 19 percent in September, but given that Windows Mobile has been lagging the field you’d think it would be much worse.

Also: RIM: BlackBerry sales solid

In fact, if Microsoft can do anything with Windows Mobile it can get back into the smartphone race.

The rest of the standings illustrate the tough road Palm faces. In September, the Palm platform had 8.3 percent market share. In December, Palm’s share was 6.1 percent. That’s a big decline in three months.

Meanwhile, Google’s Android platform now has 5.2 percent market share, up from 2.5 percent in September.

Among the total mobile market—smartphones and dumb phones—the standings look like this:

And here’s what folks do with their phones.

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Topics

Apple iPhone, Research In Motion Ltd., Microsoft Windows Mobile, Mobile, Smart Phone, Apple Inc., RIM BlackBerry, Smart Phones, Handhelds, Cellular Phones, Mobile Operating Systems, Operating Systems, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Hardware, Software, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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ZunePhone COMING!
Windowsseven 25th Feb 2010
Windows Phone is gonna clean house soon baby!





http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
View in thread
0 Votes
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2007 Ballmer "NO CHANCE iPhone is going to get significant marketshare!"
Davewrite Updated - 9th Feb 2010
Steve Ballmer 2007

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market
share. No chance."

now a short 3 years later....

lol!
0 Votes
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@Davewrite
Axsimulate 9th Feb 2010
LOL! Ballmer suffers from an acute case of foot in mouth disease.
0 Votes
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he was speaking about the device at launch
rtk 9th Feb 2010
It took a two hundred dollar price cut and three revisions before the iPhone took off outside the 5 million or so iSheep that will automatically buy a new Apple product.
0 Votes
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CEO of MSFT thinks Apple will keep iPhone at that price range forever?
Davewrite 9th Feb 2010
and there won't be any revisions?

if that passes as Ballmer strategic thinking no wonder since Steve Jobs
came back Apple has climbed from under 10 billion market cap to 177
billion while Msft has fallen from 600 billion to 244 billion.
0 Votes
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Why not? They do with their other products
John Zern 9th Feb 2010
Or didn't you think aboiut that before you spoke?

I didn't think so.
0 Votes
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You say Apple Keeps Price Range Forever????? LOL! here...
Davewrite Updated - 9th Feb 2010
The most CASUAL Google search would show you that Apple drops
their prices all the time.

For example last year iMac:

"Now you can get a 24-inch iMac for the same price of the old 20-
inch, $1,499 with the 20-inch dropping to $1,199. The 24-inch
base model also got double the RAM and hard drive."

Another easy example:

iPod price drops:

Endgadget 2009:
"Seeing is believing and we're seeing price drops across each and
every iPod touch on Apple's on-line store front. The 8GB model is now
$189 (was $229), the 16GB model is $249 (was $299), and the 32GB
model is just $279 (was $399)"

------
what's that about you saying "Or didn't you think aboiut that before
you spoke?"

Who is not thinking now??????

WHAT are you SMOKING!!!????

ROTFL!!!!!!
0 Votes
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As the poster said above
Pete "athynz" Athens 9th Feb 2010
No they don't.

Or didn't you think aboiut that before you spoke?

I didn't think so.

Suffer from foot in mouth disease much? happy
0 Votes
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@rtk
Pete "athynz" Athens 9th Feb 2010
Splitting hairs... fact is that Baller said that, fact is that the iPhone is number 2 behind Blackberry... Go figure, WM sucks.
0 Votes
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It doesn't.
Sleeper Service 9th Feb 2010
Ballmer mentioned the 1.3 billion devices available at the time which is clearly the global cellphone, not smartphone, base.

Apple don't even appear to be in the top five mobile phone vendors in the US - susprised that Nokia even beat them there with nearly 10% of the market.
0 Votes
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Beats Win Mo NOT SIGNIFICANT? More Net Profits than NOKIA.
Davewrite Updated - 9th Feb 2010
So beating Win Mo in market share not significant?

Apple makes more net profits from phones than Nokia (smart and
dumb phones put together).

2009 reuters:

"Apple overtook Nokia in the third quarter as the cellphone maker
generating the highest total operating profit in the industry, research
firm Strategy Analytics said on Tuesday. [?]

Apple does not unveil profits per business line, but Strategy Analytics
estimated Apple?s operating profit for its iPhone handset unit stood at
$1.6 billion in the third quarter, compared with Nokia?s $1.1 billion."

Man that's really INSIGNIFICANT market share!!!! lol!
in three years now makes more money than Nokia!!
I betcha Sony, Samsung and HTC would like some of that insignificant
market share. lol!

0 Votes
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Yes? And?
Sleeper Service 9th Feb 2010
...this has what to do with you being wrong about Ballmer's statement?
0 Votes
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Ballmer said he wants 80% of 1.3 billion but less than 20m WM sold yearly
Davewrite Updated - 9th Feb 2010
You're harping on Ballmers statement so I'll quote more of it, he said:
"if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd
prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them".

If you want to talk about that 1.3 billion Ballmer saying he's going for
80% when then sold only 18 million WM licenses in 2008 he even looks
more stupid. He's off by a billion or so.

As Apple makes more profit than Nokia Ballmer is also dumb in that
he says he prefers 80% of 1.3 billion no profit dumb phone market.

--------
How was I 'wrong' again? Look at my original post.

I was just laughing at Ballmers statement that Apple won't get
significant market share as Apple now has bigger share than WM. I
believe that Apple has 'significant share' (in the smartphone market it
competes in and in profits as Apple makes more than Nokia) and so
does lots of people.

Ballmers rant on 1.3 billion doesn't make much sense.

If you agree with Ballmer that he prefers 1.3 billion of the dumb phone
no profit market and that if you believe in Ballmers aim of WM going
to achieve 80% of 1.3 billion (i.e 1 billion WM sales) "I prefer 60-80%
of 1.3 billion" while it only sells less than 20 million a year now fine
but I think you're nuts. But how can I be 'wrong' when in my original
post I didn't make a statement on numbers but just laughed at
Ballmer's statement?
0 Votes
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2007 John Dvorak : "Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone"
Davewrite Updated - 9th Feb 2010
2007 John Dvorak : "Apple should pull the plug on the
iPhone....You are not going to like what you'll see."


Since then Apple has sold 75 million iPhone OS devices.
Makes more Net Profit on phones than Nokia
Has 3 billion App Downloads.

lol!

Dvorak on iPad 2010:
"Apparently when it comes to tablet computing, this is the
best he can do. Insanely great it is not.....The tablet market
has only succeeded as a niche market over the years and it
was hoped Apple would dream up some new paradigm to
change all that. From what I've seen and heard, this won't
be it"
-----


If Dvorak says it's Bad, its probably going to sell like
hotcakes....
0 Votes
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2009 Palm: "Not one of those people will be using an iPhone"
Davewrite Updated - 9th Feb 2010
March 2009 Roger McNamee of Palm around Palm Pre
launch:

"You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two-
year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not
one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month
later."

(i.e after June everyone will be using a Palm Pre)

----
of course don't forget Palm's then CEO Colligan famous
words in 2006

"PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They?re not
going to just walk in."

lol!
0 Votes
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Rumors of WM's death have been greatly exaggerated
NonZealot 9th Feb 2010
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=11862

http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=12754

In the 2 months after WM 6.5 phones started being sold,
WM's browser share jumped 75%. That, for the math
impaired, means that WM is growing much, much, much
faster than iPhone which only saw 22% growth.
0 Votes
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0,07%
bannedfromzdnetagain 9th Feb 2010
0,07%? boah, that's a market share number!
you're clutching at straws here, desperate microsoft troll.
0 Votes
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Yeah, now you know why we laugh at Apple
NonZealot Updated - 9th Feb 2010
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=132

I can barely see the little sliver labeled "Mac"
beyond that big chunk labeled "Windows"! happy
0 Votes
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And one can barely see the infintesimal slice
Pete "athynz" Athens 9th Feb 2010
of WM when compared to iPhone and iPod touch...

Who's laughing now? Oh, wait, I am...
0 Votes
+ -
Now you know why we laugh at you.
Bruizer 9th Feb 2010
WM sells premium phones. Looses market share from 25% to 7%.
Laughable.

MS tries premium Zune HD. Captures, what, 2% of the market?

Apple sells premium computers. Captures 90% of the market.

MS can only do cheap, bargin basement stuff.
0 Votes
+ -
Who do you troll for?
John Zern 9th Feb 2010
And you never did tell us what country you're from.
0 Votes
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@NonZealot
Axsimulate Updated - 9th Feb 2010
Here NonZ, I'll use your Apple market share argument but replace Apple and replace it with WinMo.
If you have 16 Windows mobile phones and you sell 12 that's a 75% increase! WooHoo!!!
0 Votes
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Too bad for you the number is actually in the 10s of millions
NonZealot 9th Feb 2010
So sorry. sad
0 Votes
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@NonZealot
Axsimulate Updated - 9th Feb 2010
I'm going to use your argument against Apple again.

Yeah, that's too bad the Tens of millions of WinMo devices pale in comparison to Apple iPhone numbers. Such a small market share for WinMo makes it an insignificant and irrelevant player.

I can barely see the little sliver labeled "WinMo" beyond that big chunk labeled "iPhone"!
0 Votes
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Again, you are wrong
NonZealot 9th Feb 2010
The latest numbers show that Apple has a small
lead, nowhere near the massive lead that
Windows has over OS X. happy
0 Votes
+ -
@NonZealot
Axsimulate 9th Feb 2010
Only a true blue WinZombie would spin a loss of market share into a positive. Go look at the numbers NonZ, MS lost market share while Apple gained market share. You make it sound like MS is catching up, which they are not.
0 Votes
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Again grasping at straws
Pete "athynz" Athens 9th Feb 2010
by bringing up something unrelated. Microsoft's Windows platform had the marketshare lead in computing for the same reason RIM has the marketshare lead in mobile use - it's what the majority of the businesses use. Bringing up the marketshare between Windows and OS X is irrelevant to this discussion.

As you say, Cue the double standards...
0 Votes
+ -
Small lead?
Bruizer 9th Feb 2010
Over 2X per quater and pulling away quickly to 3X?

iPhone has increasing growth. WinMo is showing flat to declining sales
(yet alone market share).
0 Votes
+ -
your Net Apps data just show browsing share and...
Davewrite Updated - 9th Feb 2010
not market share of devices sold

probably just means that WM 6.5 has a marginally better browser than
WM 6 (or whatever) i.e from impossible sucky to just sucky so the WM
browser use spiked.

WM from .04 to .06 (.02% increase of total web share )
while iPhone increased from .36 to .44 (.08% increase)
How does this show WM is doing good?

Also if the comScore data is correct:
WM with 18% marketshare has .06 webshare

While iPhone with 25% market share has .44 webshare.

With 8% difference in marketshare iPhone has 7 times the web
browser share. Shows the superiority of the iPhone browser and
interface doesn't it?

happy
0 Votes
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WMpoweruser.com?
Pete "athynz" Athens 9th Feb 2010
THAT is your source? Sure, COMPLETELY unbiased.

The article I'm reading shows that Microsoft's mobile marketshare dropped by 1 point to 18% and Apples rose by 1.2 points to 25.3%... looks like in mobile marketshare Apple is beating Microsoft AND Google - so much for Android, Palm, and Windows mobile. Also kills the whole "Windows Mobile had the business marketshare" argument too - hard to argue with RIM's 41.6% marketshare... the majority of that being business share. But by all means continue to grasp at straws.
0 Votes
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@athynz
Axsimulate Updated - 9th Feb 2010
Also note that RIM lost market share as well.
0 Votes
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That was noted
Pete "athynz" Athens 9th Feb 2010
but not the point of my post.

I've said it before that Microsoft needs to do a full ground-up rebuild of the WM platform to be viable... this is just further proof of that. Back a few years ago prior to Apple and Google reinvigorating the smartphone industry WM was a major player even with a buggy and clunky OS... now the OS is truly showing it's age and given the experience that the iPhone OS and Android OS offers people are not going to accept buggy and clunky. And Microsoft is not the only one - RIM's Blackberry OS could use some retooling as well. Palm... well IMHO Palm lost quite a bit of credibility by pushing the whole "hack into iTunes" thing.
0 Votes
+ -
WOW. 0,02% growth.
Bruizer 9th Feb 2010
Heck, in the US, they once had 60-80% smart phone market share. Now?
7%? so sad.

Luckily, people realized WinMo just didn't work well as a phone.
0 Votes
+ -
It's sweet that you have regional stats for the US.
Sleeper Service 9th Feb 2010
Elsewhere it's Nokia and the also rans.
0 Votes
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@Sleeper Service
Axsimulate 9th Feb 2010
Give us a link to support you claim.
0 Votes
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OK
Sleeper Service Updated - 9th Feb 2010
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MjgwOTh8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

You could also look at Gartner, IDS and Canalsys' figures.
0 Votes
+ -
Symbian is under heavy attack in all regions but Africa.
Bruizer 9th Feb 2010
Even in Europe and Asia, Symbian is quickly loosing ground every quater.
0 Votes
+ -
Really?
Sleeper Service Updated - 9th Feb 2010
Is that why Nokia's sales of converged devices went up to 20.8 million units in Q4 2009 as opposed to 15.1 million in Q4 2008 and 16.4 million in Q3 2009?

That kind of looks like and increase to me bearing in mind that Nokia has hardly any presence in the US smartphone market.

Oh yeah, that means they're share went up from 35% to 40% of the market last quarter.

Finally, there's a nice table showing the YoY and QoQ increase in the regional markets.

Seriously, do you guys do any research? Outside Apple Insider and other trash blogs like that I mean?
0 Votes
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ZunePhone COMING!
Windowsseven 25th Feb 2010
Windows Phone is gonna clean house soon baby!





http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

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