“Consider it a battle less for hearts and minds than for thumbs and ears. That’s what may ensue between Apple (AAPL) and Research In Motion (RIMM), judging from recent Wall Street analysis and the performance of the companies’ shares and marquee products,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek.
“Apple’s iPhone is expected to sell 10 million units by the end of 2008. Meanwhile, RIM has 12 million subscribers, and its iconic BlackBerry is selling at a rate of about 4 million units a quarter,” Hesseldahl reports.
MacDailyNews Take: To add some additional perspective: Apple’s iPhone is currently available in just 4 countries (US, UK, Germany, and France; Apple promises “Asia in 2008”), sold mostly via one carrier per country (you can get them unlocked in France due to local law) and, to date, is available only in one model. RIM offers multiple models to multiple carriers to many times more countries around the globe. Those facts make the numbers that Apple likely to achieve in iPhone’s first full year vs. RIM’s numbers even more stunning.
Hesseldahl continues, “Other analysts see it differently. The battle is less Apple vs. RIM, they say, and more a contest pitting RIM and Apple against established phone vendors like Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola. Smartphones, which combine such features as e-mail, navigation, and Web access, will grab an ever-growing slice of the billion-unit-plus handset market in 2008. ‘I don’t think Apple and RIM are heading for a showdown in 2008,’ says Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Ore. ‘I think the market for smartphones is growing fast enough, and smartphone adoption is low enough, so far that both will be huge share gainers. Apple and RIM are two companies that get it right now, and they’re both going to do well.’ In a research note published Dec. 21, after RIM’s most recent earnings report, Bear Stearns analyst Andy Neff wrote: ‘The battle is not RIM vs. Apple, but smartphones versus conventional handsets.'”
“If that’s the case, Motorola will need to watch its back,” Hesseldahl writes. “Having tied its smartphone strategy to Microsoft with its Q phone line, Motorola hasn’t generated much traction, while the popularity of its once red-hot RAZR line of conventional handsets has cooled substantially.”
MacDailyNews Take: Tying up with Microsoft is the kiss of death. See iPod and iTunes roadkill for evidence.
More in the full article here.
Eh, Blackberry are so last century.
Windows Mobile is dead..it’s just nerves causing the odd movement.
Symbian is no match for OSX, so Nokia has a major problem ahead with its roadmap.
RIM will produce a iPhone lookalike and so reveal its own limitations.
Apple will motor ahead with many new iterations of smart communication devices with its 21st century weapon of choice – OSX.
The Motorola Q placed dead last in the latest Consumer Reports review. The iPhone was number one.
I think the world will begin to realize the answer to this question on Jan 15th.
Motorola is soon to be the new Palm I suspect especially when MS launches the new zune phone to hold on to what little market share Windows mobile has managed to eke out. That’s partnership for you.
Motorola and Microsoft. They were made for each other.
MDN’s take couldn’t be more wrong. For Apple to have any kind of chance they NEED TO LICENSE WINDOWS MOBILE. Plain and simple. Besides, their competition isn’t RIM—it’s the plethora of fantastic Windows Mobile devices out there. If you can’t beat them—and Apple can’t, just look at MACs miniscule market share—join them. Stick with a winner. Stick with Microsoft.
Your potential. Our passion.™
The battle will be between Apple and RIM in the eyes of analysts. It is the only thing they’ll be able to use to beat up on the iPhone.
“iPhone’s not doing any damage, just look at BlackBerry sales and RIM stock!”
“The almighty iPhone still lacks a keyboard and sufficient enterprise support, however. Two major reasons why the BlackBerry has yet to tainted by its presence.”
“For all its sales and market share gains, the iPhone still hasn’t managed to knock the BlackBerry from its perch.”
let’s put it in perspective….the iPhone came just a little over 6 months. The RIM blackberrys have been around for several years. The leap that the iPhone took is staggering when you think about it. It just a matter of time.
Blackberry vs iPhone is a lot like DOS vs Macintosh and I hope Apple sees that the installed base of RIM (or M$) dependent software is something that can’t be ignored.
History has shown that junk over an installed base beats quality over a void so either Apple needs to fill in that void (and I doubt that the open source approach will suffice) or support the installed environments.
After all, Apple has embraced the M$ platform in the past to penetrate a market (iTunes).
save the mac fanboy-dom for macfans. blackberry users aren’t going to listen.
old doodz don’t want to type on a touch screen because time is money and having to correct spelling errors when money is on the line is not acceptable.
Zune Tang you’re wonderful!
I once had a RIM job, but now I work for Apple.
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I have been a Mac user since 1985. I would have seriously considered an iPhone were it not for AT&T;service. I switched to AT&T;(Cingular) two years ago but due to the lack of service in my home and in many places I frequently visit in my home Washington, D.C. area I could hardly wait for my two year contract to end so I could switch. My contract ended last week and I purchased a Blackberry 8830 and switched Verizon service. This works well everywhere I have been, including the basement of my house and my gym’s underground parking garage. This Blackberry 8830 is so well designed that if Apple didn’t have its own phone I would swear that Apple did this one.
@Whatever:
Pottymouth.
So Motorola’s Q phones are tied up with MS now – will anyone ever learn? Did Motorola not hear about Palm?
Oh well, with the iPhone trouncing everything that rears its small screen and tiny buttons I guess Motorola has to try everything they can think of just to be able to say they did.
Look. The iPhone is great. BUT it is a consumer product. PERIOD The Blackberry is more geared for business users (YES, regular non-corporate users can use it too but..) they are 2 different devices aimed for 2 different markets. If iPhone can be updated to connect to corporate e-mail and have it pushed (sorry, not completely versed on all the tech. involved) so that it notifies you when you receive new e-mail, also faster internet connectivity, ability to open and edit documents then maybe then a comparison can be made. But for now the iPhone is a fun phone and a Blacberry is a work tool.
Nice try – I’m sure all that fast connectivity on your RIM is real useful – I will take the iPhone any day over the RIM
@Register or Login,
Sounds like someone needs a rim job!
“MacDailyNews Take: Tying up with Microsoft is the kiss of death.”
Once again the Apple lemmings spout gibberish and spittle and don’t know what they’re talking about. As of Q3 2007, the last quarter for which hard data is currently available, worldwide market share stands as follows:
Symbian – 72.4%
Linux – 13.3%
Windows Mobile – 6.1%
RIM – 5.3%
Palm – 1.6%
These top five account for 98.7% worldwide market share of all mobile smart devices. Anything else is just a wannabe, including OS X and the iPhone. Source – market share data from the Canalys Report – “Worldwide Smart Mobile Device Market, Canalys Q3 2007”
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Apple Delusion……..
Hey Former Smart Guy,
Hard data, Where is the OSX and iPhone numbers?
Oh you haven’t heard, there’s this thing Apple invented called
the iPhone. It’s been in all the papers…
Kiss your market share and your Crackberry goodbye…..
Lets check in next year to see what phone your using.
Just a Apple Delusion backed by facts,
What’s funnier is someone registering the name, Former Mac User on a Mac fan site. It’s like an obese person heckling a Weight Watcher’s meeting.
Sent from my iPhone.