BlackBerry's market share has been under attack in North America, but it has held strong in the UK, and emerging markets. The New York Times reports that BlackBerry is now under attack in Europe due to stiff competition from Android and iOS.
BlackBerry used to have the market cornered because of solid security and reliability, not to mention a hardware keyboard. With recent BlackBerry outages, questions about security after RIM supposedly gave multiple countries back end access to messages, and an overall explosion in consumer touchscreen devices, RIM has lost a lot of ground. Even enterprises are now looking elsewhere for their devices.
Can RIM pull it together to hang on to a significant portion of the smartphone market? They've got work to do.
RIM, Apple and Android phones now equally share the workplace market. In a recent global survey of information workers — people who use a computer or another smart device for at least an hour a day — Forrester Research found that 27 percent of smartphone users said they had an Android phone; 26 percent, a BlackBerry; and 24 percent, an iPhone. “Android and Apple together are eating BlackBerry’s lunch,” said Frank Gillett, a Forrester analyst.
BlackBerry used to have the market cornered because of solid security and reliability, not to mention a hardware keyboard. With recent BlackBerry outages, questions about security after RIM supposedly gave multiple countries back end access to messages, and an overall explosion in consumer touchscreen devices, RIM has lost a lot of ground. Even enterprises are now looking elsewhere for their devices.
“We’ve seen quite a huge growth of Android in the enterprise over the last 18 months,” said Nick McQuire, research director of enterprise mobility strategies at the International Data Corporation. “We see it as being neck and neck with Apple to be a top mobile enterprise platform in Europe.”
Can RIM pull it together to hang on to a significant portion of the smartphone market? They've got work to do.
