Report: Crackberry Addiction More Prevalent Than iPhonia Nervosa Among Handset Users
by John Paczkowski
Posted on November 7, 2008 at 8:33 AM PT
Apple beat RIM. In their most recent quarter, Research in Motion, or RIM, reported selling 6.1 million BlackBerry devices. Compared to our most recent quarter sales of 6.9 million iPhones, Apple outsold RIM last quarter and this is a milestone for us. RIM is a good company that makes good products and so it is surprising that after only 15 months in the market, we could outsell them in any quarter. But even more remarkable is this–measured by revenues, Apple has become the world’s third largest mobile phone supplier. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true–as measured in revenues, not units, Apple has become the third largest mobile phone supplier.”
– Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Oct. 21, 2008
You can stop gloating now, Steve.
Though Apple shipped more iPhones this summer than RIM shipped Blackberries, its share of the U.S. market still is still dwarfed by its Canadian rival. According to Strategy Analytics, Apple (AAPL) accounted for just 5.7 percent of the mobile phone market in the states in the third quarter, while Research in Motion claimed nearly twice as much–10.2 percent. That places it sixth in the research outfit’s ranking, two spots below RIM (RIM). Quite an achievement for a company with a single handset in a market ruled by the likes of Samsung, which has just overtaken Motorola as the leading mobile phone supplier in the states. Samsung claimed 22.4 percent of U.S. sales in Q3, up from 17.9 percent a year earlier. Meanwhile, Motorola’s (MOT) share dropped to 21.1 percent from 32.7 percent year-over-year.
Said analyst Bonny Joy, “Samsung’s growing retail presence and an attractive high-tier handset portfolio for all of the big four operators have proved crucial in grabbing the prestigious title of the No. 1 vendor in the world’s single largest handset market.”
