Summary
The release of the Motorola's Droid Smartphone was predicted to impact Apple's iPhone business. This article points out that it is Research in Motion ("RIM's") Blackberry business that is threatened.
The article provides facts and figures on the iPhone, Android devices on impact on RIM's Blackberry business and market share. And predicts a continuing revenue decline.
Analysis
The financial numbers are further evidence of what has been happening in the Smartphone market in the last year. RIM, who once was the innovator in handset market, is not keeping up with the products released by Apple, Palm and the Android developers. And it is now impacting RIM's market share and possibly its revenue stream.
One must wonder is going on at RIM. It is in a reactive mode and trying to catch up.
The Blackberry Storm was intended to be RIM's competitor to Apple's iPhone. The initial release of the Storm was not well received in the marketplace. The product was unstaple and got poor reviews. While RIM has addressed the issues, it lost time and creditability.
Apple did a tremendous job in releasing the iPhone to market. It was Apple's first try at creating a cell phone. I expected growing pains in creating a mature handset. A risky venture that could impact Apple's reputation for developing quality products. While there were issues, Apple addressed them quickly, without damage to its reputation.
Added to this is Apple's strategy in developing and releasing iPhone applications. It was innovative and well implemented. Apple provides a simple iPhone development toolkit, developer's program and application store. While there are issues to iron out with the developer's program, there are currently about 100,000 applications developed for the iPhone to date (up from 35,000 in April).
In comparison, RIM's Blackberry development program is complex, reactive and playing catch up with Apple. RIM offers three different development platforms for different skill levels, plus a developer's program and application store. Currently they offer approximately 5000 applications.
Add to the equation, Palm's participation in this marketplace and the emergence of the Android consortium. It shows a dynamic and crowded market that needs to get settled.
RIM can respond and recover to the threats to its business. But we have not seen it to date.
