The new Palm Pre hit stores last week and it is off to a solid start. According to numbers released by Palm, their wireless carriers sold about 100,000 Pres in the first week of availability in the market. They also report they are on track to sell over half a million in the current quarter. About 35% of those sales were to new Sprint customers (currently the exclusive carrier for the Pre).
With all the excitement around the Pre, and the news last week about the upcoming new iPhone, it might surprise you that neither are dominating the Smart Phone market...in fact neither are all that close. The iPhone has actually lost market share since Q3 of 2008 from 30% down to just under 20% currently, according to reports. No, by far the dominant force in the Smart Phone market is actually RIM's Blackberry, with over 55% market share and that is up dramatically from already impressive 40%+ market share they enjoyed in Q3 of '08. Blackberry is up...iPhone is down...you think that made it onto a slide at the Apple presentation last week??? Me neither.
Another interesting aspect to this is how quiet RIM is being about their success. They just announced a new device, called the "Tour" (which most haven't heard of...I just heard about it today, and actually thought it was a literal "Blackberry Tour" where they were going to go around the country showing off their devices...not the name of a device itself). The fact is that you can get a Blackberry, in some flavor or another, with virtually any domestic wireless carrier, unlike the iPhone which is exclusive to AT&T. In fact, even AT&T themselves has as many Blackberry users as iPhone users (again, missed in all the big giant numbers Apple threw around last week).
Worldwide, the story is different, although not better for Apple...or Palm. Nokia is the largest player in the Smart Phone market internationally with a 41% control, compared to only 20% for Blackberry. Apple is even worse though, with roughly half of RIM's control and even sits behind Windows Mobile.
It's all good for us though, regardless. More choices...more advanced technology. As long as the various formats continue to duke it out for ultimate supremacy, we the consumer continue to reap the benefits. Technology improves, prices drop, and choices expand, regardless of which Smart Phone you are partial to.
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