The smartphone segment is becoming duopolistic with Android and iOS vying with each other. Sadly, the other contestants are fast
losing their importance. The quarter ended in May saw RIM losing about 1 million customers in the US. The loss becomes even harder to swallow when you consider Apple, which increased its subscriber base by 3 million during the same time period.
Smartphones are also becoming more and more mainstream. In the last quarter, smartphone ownership increased 11 percent. In the US, there are now 76.8 million users wielding smartphones, up from 69.1 million. A large piece of this pie was gobbled up by Android, which saw its subscriber base swelling by 6.5 million. There are now approximately 29.2 million Android users in the US, followed closely by 20.4 million iPhone users.
Apple also toppled RIM from its second place in the mobile segment. RIM is now being favored by 19 million users, down from 20 million. Microsoft also lost around 0.87 million users and currently commands measly 5.8 percent market share. Palm also joined the loser party by losing 0.4 percent market share. So, Android and iOS are the clear winners in the smartphone party.
However, things are most dire for RIM which has nothing else to fall back upon. Microsoft is a well diversified company and thus has cushion to fall back upon. RIM is not only losing market share, but its stock value is also tumbling down. We are not going to write RIM's obituary now, but things are getting pretty tough for the Canadian company.