RIM Loses More U.S. Market Share To Apple, Google

TORONTO, June 3 (Reuters) - Research In Motion (RIM.TO) has given up more ground to Apple (AAPL.O) and Google (GOOG.O) in the hypercompetitive U.S. smartphone market, a report shows, while two brokerages cut their price targets for the BlackBerry maker on concerns it can no longer keep pace.

RIM's shares dropped on Friday after a research firm said the company's slice of the U.S. market for high-end mobile phones narrowed in the three months to April.

While Google's Android platform jumped to a 36.4 percent share and Apple's iPhone moved up to 26 percent, RIM fell to 25.7 percent from 30.4 percent in the previous quarter, according to the comScore report. The latest figures dropped RIM from second to third place.

The Canadian company's struggle to compete is unlikely to get any easier, with Apple's upcoming iCloud service expected to hurt RIM, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a note.

Shares of RIM, whose grip on the corporate smartphone market has loosened since Apple's iPhone and then Google's Android software transformed the sector, have shed more than 40 percent in value since a February peak above $70.

They traded 3.7 percent lower on the Nasdaq at $38.93, the first time below $40 since March 2009.

UBS lowered its price target on the stock citing concerns over increasing competition and uncertainty over timings of RIM's product launches.

RIM's new BlackBerry Bold, a touchscreen model announced for a "summer" launch in early May, won't reach stores until September, tech blog Boy Genius Report said, citing multiple unnamed sources.

UBS, which cut its price target to $45 from $60, said it did not believe RIM's management structure was optimal. Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie share roles as co-chairmen and co-chief executives, and Balsillie has now become chief marketing officer as well.

Sterne Agee, which cut its price target on the stock to $44 from $52, said the launch of iCloud, Apple's online music and storage service, could result in some collateral damage for RIM. Some aspects of the service are more attractive than RIM's own push network technology, the brokerage said.

RIM's revenue and gross profit margins could erode if Apple decides to offer some base services for free, it said in a note to clients. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto and Siddharth Cavale in Bangalore; Editing by Frank McGurty)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

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Comments

[Steve Ballmer]

10:33 PM on 06/07/2011

Wait for the ZuneSlab people!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/03/rim-market-share_n_871129.html#

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

[SoCalNick]

12:11 PM on 06/06/2011

Rims problem is very very simple.
Googles new OS and Phones are selling 400,000 copies a day for one reason.

Only people who have not changed over are the ones who have not looked. These are not TOYS and some people try to assert. They are VERY powerful business machines AS WELL.

The new generation of Smartphones are just what YOU make them... All you have to do is download a free or cheap app.

I can run my business SECURELY from anywhere in the world I can get a connection.

RIM lagged... this is the payoff.

That is all

[SoCalNick]

10:34 AM on 06/06/2011

I know on this site it is believed that Iphone is so dominant. That is what good Marketing does for you.. and having sites in your pocket as well. BUT the QUIET company OS is actually activating 400,000 devices A DAY and has for a long time.

[jsgaetano]

04:12 AM on 06/06/2011

Market "share" of an expanding market isn't really much of a change. RIM isn't losing customers, it just isn't gaining them as rapidly as other smartphone companies... which doesn't matter, because RIM is, was, and likely always will be focused as a businesses product, unlike the other companies which just make non-secure tech toys.

[SoCalNick]

10:42 AM on 06/06/2011

You need to revisit some of the new tech " toys."

RIM is not focused as a business product at all.. they have tried to implement all of the games and toys but just cannot keep up.

ALL of the new smartphones can be what YOU want them to be by simply adding free or paid for APPS.

My " Toy" is 100% secure with layers of encryption and does everything I need to run my business 24/7 from anywhere in the world. OH AND it makes Calls that do not drop. I have 100% of all business administration and management software I need on it to include Banking AND Payment processing and management. 2000 songs and a Dozen feature films to watch when traveling.

SO again I suggest you take another look. RIM is getting its arse kicked because the rest of the world has left them behind.

That is all

[jsgaetano]

07:42 PM on 06/06/2011

"RIM is not focused as a business product at all.."- I can just stop reading right there, because you've lost all your credibility on the issue.

[jsgaetano]

07:44 PM on 06/06/2011

BTW, there's already a litmus test for the miserable security on iPhone- it's called "jailbreak". Once it's no longer possible, Apple will have finally fixed their terrible security.

[danny decruz]

04:06 PM on 06/05/2011

I guess the new Evil Empire is Google.

[Equinator]

09:37 AM on 06/05/2011

Bye, bye Blackberry.

[lars000]

08:34 AM on 06/05/2011

RIM will survive as the world market is a big one. I have been a blackberry user both professionally and personally since the beginning. Have used BES for many years. BBM is the mostly widely used app on blackberries and it appeals to users around the world. I have the playbook now and love it. Said goodbye to my iPad.

[Equinator]

09:41 AM on 06/05/2011

Do you work for RIM? I support medium size business and nobody wants a Blackberry.

[jsgaetano]

04:14 AM on 06/06/2011

He said he uses them. I use Blackberry as well. It's a business tool, not a toy. RIM owns enterprise level businesses who are more concerned about security and reliablility than they are about looking cool in front of their friends.

[CaptainPicard]

06:15 AM on 06/05/2011

RIM = has been. It is going the same way as Palm. They do not disrupt or invent anymore. They follow, like Microsoft.

[Equinator]

09:38 AM on 06/05/2011

And both MS and BB don't even follow well.

[ccrevecoeur78]

10:34 AM on 06/05/2011

I will take MS out of it because they are trying but BB hasn't change since I first saw one.

[jsgaetano]

04:15 AM on 06/06/2011

I'm sure when Steve Balmer looks at Teh Lunix and Apple's pathetic single digit OS market share, he's really worried about how innovative and disruptive Apple and Teh Lunix are.

[CaptainPicard]

12:19 PM on 06/06/2011

Yes. He's got nothing to worry about.

[littlebrowngirl]

01:03 AM on 06/05/2011

Blackberry should be focusing on the business market and stop trying to compete with iPhones and androids.

[jsgaetano]

04:16 AM on 06/06/2011

I didn't realize they were doing anything aside from that.

[Markdmac]

12:50 AM on 06/05/2011

RIM can save itself in corporate America if they decide to support Microsoft's Exchange Activesync instead of requiring a BES server to do the same job. The BES software is terrible and as an IT consultant I try to steer as many customers away from that product line as I can. The Android OS is so much better and so much more flexible. What RIM does well is make decent hardware (except for touch screens, but that is more of an OS issue really than hardware). They should focus on their strength and stop trying to swim upstream against the largest corporate email system on the planet.

[Equinator]

09:42 AM on 06/05/2011

No saving RIM. RIM = toast.

[jsgaetano]

04:16 AM on 06/06/2011

Right... and I'm sure you also spend over a decade saying Lunix was going to replace Microsoft Windows?

[mugugaibu]

12:50 PM on 06/06/2011

I have set up numerous BES in the past few years. Installation is as simple as following a simple guide, I believe it is 15 - 20 steps. Once connected to the Exchange server you leave it and it just does its job. The only time I ever touch any of them is when I run a patch on the Exchange server, I reboot the BES just to make sure it reconnects properly with Exchange.

Not to mention BES software is free. And it can be set up on one of the lesser used Exchange systems so you don't even need extra hardware.

Activesync doesn't touch the BES when it comes to mass device management or policy deployment.

[quedog]

07:40 PM on 06/04/2011

i have a BB storm 2 and it is awefull
it flat out sucks

[Frederick N Gotfredson]

05:58 PM on 06/04/2011

RIM has a strategy that they are sticking two, and given the unpredictability of this ever emerging market, it's not a bad idea. For one thing, they started out doing what they are now doing. They made a business device primarily, focused on communication and security primarily. They never set out to make a device that we now consider a smartphone, their sudden rise in popularity was by mere coincidence. Blackberrys have existed for a decade before they were considered mainstream. Now in addition to this, look at what has happened with Sony and PBS. This is the tip of the iceberg. RIM has the best encryption available, so much so that no country is able to intercept communications over BBM or Blackberry email. This may end up saving their skin.

[Equinator]

09:44 AM on 06/05/2011

I have a suggestion. Pick up an iPhone or Android and use it for two weeks. You will not go back.

[jsgaetano]

04:18 AM on 06/06/2011

I've had a blackberry for years. I used an iPhone for a short time, and kept wanting to throw it out a window. Also, iPhone doesn't give you access to everything in an Exchange account. That's always going to be a huge negative for serious business users. MS should consider buying RIM, if for no other reason than getting their BES software.

[MadeandBakedintheUSA]

05:37 PM on 06/04/2011

DO you people even know what is going on in ASIA?

[MadeandBakedintheUSA]

05:36 PM on 06/04/2011

MOST average ASIANS had cell phone while in USA only Doctors and lawyers could afford them!

What a joke we are !

[Pectin]

07:22 PM on 06/04/2011

So go there.

[Equinator]

09:46 AM on 06/05/2011

Would you stop using that demeaning argument. It only signifies you have no way to defend your position.

[jayaur]

12:24 AM on 06/05/2011

That's only because they didn't have or could not afford to put the infrastructure in place for land-line communication services. American land-line infrastructure has been well established for more than 80 - 100 years. No one felt the need for cellphones at the time.

So, they were late to the communications game and just happed to be ripe for the wireless cellular technology to supplement or replace their lack of infrastructure period. Basically cellular solved a problem for them that we didn't have.

[Equinator]

09:47 AM on 06/05/2011

It also means they are in the process of leap frogging our technology.

[wespenn56]

02:55 PM on 06/06/2011

It also means their innovation (for whatever spin used) is kicking our collective a**es

[MadeandBakedintheUSA]

05:33 PM on 06/04/2011

Do AMERICANS even know how far behind USA is?

1995-2007 CSTREET ran USA TELECOM! LOBBY

IBM DELL CEOs say ‘4G’ is LAUGHABLE! http://bit.ly/f6giaq

Then - AT

[jayaur]

02:24 AM on 06/05/2011

Not as far as you are trying to imply that we are. As I am currently living in a SE Asian country half the time and the US the other half. I am very confident with that statement and the ones I about make.

With introduction of the LTE networks coming online and to be completed by 2013. The US telecom industry is already on par ( network wise) with any other network in the world. If you take into account the size of the US market probably ahead.

If you're talking about services such as banking, then yes some of these countries are ahead in that respect. But In some of these countries the only reason some people even have a bank/financial account is because of a cell phone. Once again this points back to a lack of infrastructure and the absence of many other options that US takes for granted. Cellular banking in North America is fairly new, and will take sometime for people to get comfortable with.

But, in your defense there are a couple of other service that I have been able to enjoy since 2006 that are restricted from cellphones and software sold in the US, such as; cell to cell Video calls and VOIP calls using the telecoms cell network. Not that US networks are not capable. But, I guess they just haven't figured out how to charge for it yet. You know they have to make a buck on every feature.