Android now has 44% of the smartphone market in the USA
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/androi...ightmare/41155

With the release of the £99 'top end feel' San Francisco is the UK far higher?

Don't think RIM will care about that stat.

The BlackBerry OS is available on limited handsets. . .Android is available on all sorts of disposable handsets (such as that £99 thing you speak of) - they're not comparable.

That thing is far better than a 3GS for many.
ANd while better it is also price justifiable for what is essentially still a phone.

It's not remotely comparable to a BlackBerry - hence RIM not giving a crap.

A company could release a phone for £10 and millions of people would buy - BlackBerry would be similarly unmoved.

I am not sure whether to believe these figures or not. RIM's biggest market is the enterprise, I find it very hard to believe that businesses are going to ditch the Blackberry's and go with Android or iPhone. However, as others have said, Android is on many different handsets. The iPhone is one handset and RIM is a few handsets.

It's a damn good job you're not on the board at RIM then, they'd be out of business in no time

Of course RIM will care. If people are buying other smartphones then they aren't buying their smartphones. It doesn't matter that Android is available on more than one brand, it will still affect RIM's sales.

As more and more people buy Android handsets it's starting to get well known. People are starting to actively look for a handset that runs Android. And the fact that there are different manufacturers and price brackets out there means the Android OS caters for a wider range of people than RIM, Nokia or Apple do.


What a naive thing to say. So because something's cheaper it doesn't matter in your view that someone's bought that over another brand's product? I guess business isn't your strong side

Even the low down models are offering the features that people want and on top of that they're doing it at a low price. This means that you can get an Android handset to fit your budget.

RIM are still doing relatively well because of their business features and Blackberry messenger. The latter appealing to youths because once you've got a good number using it and you don't let anyone else in on the messaging network you've got a good selling point. However these two won't keep RIM going forever, hence their latest handset with the new OS and a bit of a rethink.

RIM certainly do have something to worry about, if sales are going to another format which is growing rapidly in popularity it would be naive to suggest otherwise.

Are you able to speak on behalf of RIM or do you just make stuff up to make it look like you know what you're talking about when clearly you are exhibiting otherwise?

If you can consider such paragraphs as this one taken from that article
and honestly state that you don't think this will affect RIM then I suggest you're wrong.

This is clearly affecting RIM and to suggest they don't give a crap is naive to say the least!


I can see now your line of thought and it appears you've not quite understood the situation.

It's not down purely to the price of the handset, it's down to what that handset does. I'll explain.

If someone wants a basic £10 phone (they do new handsets for £5 at Carphonewarehouse on pay as you go) then it may not bother RIM. But this would be working on the assumption that the £10 phone is in line with current £10 handsets as in having very basic features offering just SMS, calls and not a great deal more.

However, if that £10 phone was a smartphone offering everything that a more expensive RIM phone offered, and also with a more appealing modern feel and on an OS which is showing to be more popular with more apps and support etc. then yes, it will certainly rock RIM's boat.

So you need to consider what the cheaper handset offers. If it offers what RIM offers then they're in trouble.

RIM handsets tend to feel clunky and outdated at the moment. Their browsing experience is shocking compared to Android and iOS and there just isn't the same number of developers interested in RIM as their are the Android and iOS markets. So if someone offers web, email, multimedia and other general smartphone features at a price similar or less than RIM does - even if it's for £10 as you suggest - then RIM are certainly going to be worried because it's going to be popular and people are going to buy it.

Why buy a handset which feels outdated in many ways when you get get a more modern feeling handset for the same price or less?

It's common sense and RIM really need to do something about it asap if they want to stay the giants they are currently starting to slip from.

Whether you like it or not Android is clearly a threat to RIM.

Maybe not the iPhone as such, but Android is starting to prove to be quite popular with network administrators and IT teams due to it's ability to work with many corporate systems currently in place and support is being developed to build on this.

While I have no doubt that RIM still hold the bigger share of the corporate users I think that Android handsets are starting to creep in here too now as people realise that the more feature rich handsets such as the Desire and Desire HD offer much better business tools than RIM handsets do. And for those keen on the physical keyboard, the Desire Z. In terms of multimedia, office documents, presentations etc. the Android handsets in this case are winning and they're now starting to catch up with their ability to synch with mail servers and other systems.

RIM handsets are still very much phones with smart features added. The modern Android handsets are starting to appear more like tablets with much more features and abilities appearing on them.


Which for some reason some use to dismiss Android or even show as a negative which is quite the opposite really.

As long as technology has been mass purchased people have dreamed of mass compatibility. Android has a chance to bring something along those lines to us as consumers. With different brands talking to each other, with Android being backed by some of the biggest names on the internet and with other manufacturers starting to look at Android for other kit such as tablets, PCs, TVs and even cars it's really looking like Android is starting to gather momentum. If you can have a handset that talks seemlessly with your other gadgets and kit then that's going to be more attractive than owning several gadgets that don't get on or won't communicate.

Even Sony are looking at Android for their gaming products at the moment.

RIM do have a problem for two reasons iPhone and Android. Both are now in the corporate space as well as the commercial one. Both have sorted out corporate connectivity. Both are working on corporate enterprise security solutions, once they can convince companies they are secure (password protection, remote wipe, remote admin etc), RIM will be in big trouble. At my work place we get the choice of phone and I can tell you now RIM is a distant 3rd behind iPhone then Android.

Certainly where I work the BlackBerry is the device of choice, however the top bods (CEO, execs etc) all wanted Iphones recently and they got them so I think BlackBerry's can't rest on their laurels.....more and more BlackBerry users will want access to apps especially if their have their own personal Iphone or Android.

I recently got the Orange San Fransisco android and for a £100 PDA it's remarkable, sure it won't be a patch on a BlackBerry for emailing but the thousands of apps (many free) could change everything.

Totally agree, thats what happened where I work, as soon as top bods got away from blackberrys it freed up everyone else and they all move to iPhones and Android base phones. We renew our phones every two years so it wasnt overnight, but those that have changed have all move away from RIM.

Rim actually increased their sales by 46% on the last year.
Total smartphone sales almost doubled including those for Apple buoyed by the release of the iPhone 4

It is interesting what will happen next year with budget phones beating top end features.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...arter_IDC_says

I doubt Apple mid being outsold 2 to 1 by Android as long as they maintain massive profit margins.

Yes I bet you're right, Apple make a healthy profit on their devices and leave the low-mid range to other companies to squabble over (and make much less money)