“Research In Motion Ltd.’s sales in the U.S. fell by 50 percent last quarter, dragging total revenue lower, as American consumers abandoned older BlackBerry phone models for Apple Inc.’s iPhones,” Hugo Miller reports for Bloomberg.
“Revenue from the U.S. dropped to $1.11 billion from $2.22 billion a year earlier, overshadowing gains in Canada and other markets, according to a filing released yesterday after the company reported earnings last week,” Miller reports. “U.K. sales fell 2.3 percent to $419 million, according to the filing.”
Miller reports, “RIM’s share of the global smartphone market dropped to 12 percent in last quarter from 19 percent a year earlier, according to Gartner Inc.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Like shootin’ fish in a barrel. RIM RIP.
You gotta be a retard to buy a BlackBerry anyway. So I guess from this statistic, we can say that retards are getting fewer on the ground.
Agree ….
Once upon a time, they thoroughly dominated the smartphone market. Just 2 years ago, they were at almost 25%. For a company with such a commanding presence to lose more than half of their share in the business is unfathomable. In all fairness, though, they did grow the absolute numbers since 2009, even though their share shrank, as the entire smartphone market grew rapidly. However, this last quarter, it was obvious that not even the rapid growth of the smartphone market did not give RIM a chance to sell more. They actually sold FEWER phones than last year this time. In other words, in the fast-growing market, RIM is standing still and others are simply taking their lunch and eating it.
This sits squarely on the shoulders of the two half-CEOs. I can’t say I’m sad for them, nor am I some vindictive person to be happy. I’m, well, indifferent.
These two half-CEOs do not feel the burden on their shoulders — they have too many, as much as four shoulders among them.
Got two users that insisted on Windows and Blackberrys in a company of Macs and iPhones. Too stupid to understand the benefits of using a Mac and getting away from the Blackberry.
In order to get the BB to connect to the company calendar, we had to pay for a 3rd party add on that will charge them money each year to continue to use. Hopefully RIM will go under and they will have to get rid of their BB phone.
Not to mention how horrid the user experience is on the BB.
“Too stupid to understand”
Yeah, they ain’t all smart like us.
Survival of the fittest in the eyes of the consumer.
Scheduled a meeting with an accountant today. I checked my iPad, and she was putting it into her Blackberry. I was amazed at the difficulty in her pressing the right keys, navigating with that teeny trackball, and viewing the calendar on a screen half the size of my iPhone.
I don’t understand the “need” to feel physical keys, especially when they are smaller than my iPhone’s keys (particularly in landscape mode). It just looked SO much more difficult.
No wonder people are fleeing Blackberries in droves. A physical keyboard and tiny screen just doesn’t make any sense any longer.
It does not get old. Love it.
I remember all the smugness over the years.
“Apple is for design people.”
“They’re not compatible.”
“Nobody uses them.”
I’m lovin’ this shit.
They have to fear iOS 5 coming. Must feel like one of the horseman from the apocalypse.
Apple will have push messaging to all the mobile iOS devices and possible integration to the Desktop class Macs.
The sounds of hoofs coming from of a dark fiery cloud. The end is nigh.
Well, considering that RIM’s main customer has traditionally been Enterprise, to see a 50% drop in sales is downright precipitous.
-hh
Good point!
The title of the article mentions ‘consumers’ abandoning BB’s, but enterprise customers are frequently huge buyers AND it’s a market that Apple hasn’t been as successful with in the past.
Inroads to the enterprise market by iPhone and iPad are likely to boost Apple’s computer sales, too … the ‘halo effect.’
The boat may start rocking slowly, but once it hits the tipping point it capsizes quickly. It will take a miracle to avoid the death spiral.
I had a BB once….I actually liked it….when it wasn’t frozen up and making me yank the battery out to restart. I’m amazed how superior my iPhone 4 is just a year newer than my BB was.
It stinks around here like something’s dying. I think it’s RIM. 🙄
The latest TV ad for BB here in the UK is totally focused on the whole physical keypad/touch screen combo experience. RIM is banking on some users preferring a physical keypad.
I reckon quite a lot less than half the time an average smartphone user spends on his phone is spent using the keyboard. You don’t need it for games and not too much for web browsing, phone calls etc. So why sacrifice half your potential screen size for a hardware keypad?
RIM, you are truly screwed.