Apple Closing Quickly on Research in Motion in Smart Phone Market Share

[MacRumors]

Market research firm ChangeWave today released its latest quarterly Consumer Smart Phone survey, which includes survey data taken in mid-September highlighting market share trends for Research in Motion, Apple, and Palm.

In the horserace among manufacturers, the release of the iPhone 3GS has led to a big jump in smart phone market share for Apple and has placed them within striking distance of Research In Motion -- whose slew of models are still number one but have fallen to their lowest level in two years.

The report is an expanded analysis of data touched upon in September that showed Apple's smart phone market share rising from 25% to 30% between June and September. The new analysis compares iPhone market share to the performance of Research in Motion, which has trended slightly down to currently stand at 40%, and Palm, which appears to be stabilizing at approximately 7% of the market after a steep decline from its leadership position earlier this decade.




Overall, smart phone growth continues, with 39% of surveyed mobile phone owners reporting owning a smart phone, up from 37% in the previous quarter, and a continuation of a clear trend extending back many years as smart phones have continued to gain more enticing capabilities at lower price points.




Apple also appears poised to continue to eat into Research in Motion's lead in the smart phone market, with 36% of survey respondents planning to purchase a smart phone in the next 90 days looking to purchase an iPhone, with only 27% of those interested in Research in Motion's BlackBerry. The numbers represent a decline from the 44%-23% advantage held by Apple in the previous quarter, but as the report notes, the decline is due to a natural tapering off of enthusiasm after the iPhone 3GS launch and is actually a much smaller decline than was observed after the launch of the iPhone 3G last year.






Article Link: Apple Closing Quickly on Research in Motion in Smart Phone Market Share

[thegoldenmackid]

I suspect that it will be neck and neck around the time of the new iPhone.

[Povilas]

Bad Apple

[KingYaba]

What the heck happened to Palm?

[ChazUK]

Originally Posted by KingYaba

What the heck happened to Palm?

I was wondering that too.

Who's marketshare is Apple mostly eating in to?

Impressive performance from Apple nonetheless.

[philipt42]

No real surprises here, everyone I know who is getting a smartphone is getting an iPhone, but it is a little weird palm doesn't have a bit more.

[entropys]

Intersting interpretation. To me it looks like Apple hasn't hurt RIM all that much (% market share belonging to RIM hasn't changed all that much), but has caused Palm no end of grief and it doesn't provide any info on Symbian, Android or Winmo.

Not enough info here to be useful.

The key RIM advantage of course is that many workplaces will not allow or provide an iphone for their network, but will allow/provide a RIM device.

[OllyW]

Is this global market share or just the U.S. market?

[alywa]

Originally Posted by ChazUK

Who's marketshare is Apple mostly eating in to?

As far as overall marketshare, apple is taking share from BB, Palm, and WM. However, the real picture is that the smartphone market is growing rapidly, and apple is garnering a larger percentage of the overall growth. Not so much that the other's user base is shrinking, it is jut not growing as quickly as iPhone's.

[Diode]

Originally Posted by ChazUK

I was wondering that too.

Who's marketshare is Apple mostly eating in to?

Impressive performance from Apple nonetheless.

The increase in demand for smart phones ... ie people who never owned one before.

[BongoBanger]

Originally Posted by KingYaba

What the heck happened to Palm?

Nothing to offer and the Pre was too little, too late.

RIM seem fairly static - it seems Apple have hoovered up Palm's market and the odd RIM customer here and there in the main. Does this include corporate sales? I would imagine not.

Originally Posted by entropys

Intersting interpretation. To me it looks like Apple hasn't hurt RIM all that much (% market share belonging to RIM hasn't changed all that much), but has caused Palm no end of grief and it doesn't provide any info on Symbian, Android or Winmo.

Not enough info here to be useful.

True - there's 23% missing. Given that this is a US survey one would assume Symbian will have very little share which leaves the rest between Android and WinMo. It's strange that they don't show their numbers.

[spazzcat]

Originally Posted by KingYaba

What the heck happened to Palm?

It died years ago...

[Ironduke]

1 more year and apple will be the daddy.

You could say they are going to shoot it in off the rim.

giggady

[Lesser Evets]

Compared to all the Palm stuff I had across the years, the iPhone kicks ass so bad.

When's the first MS troll going to come here and say Apple is failing and MS is doing it right? As they do with every thread.

[CFreymarc]

Originally Posted by KingYaba

What the heck happened to Palm?

There is a lot of finger pointing but a lot point at the ex-CEO who pushed the Cobalt OS development, trashed it burning man-decades of project development for nothing and then resigned.

This put them a generation behind, no major product releases for two to three years and a mad rush to make a new kernel to get something out. WebOS is their home grown baby and we all shall see how the post-Hawkins Palm survives.

I think Jeff should give up on his brain-chip Numenta and come back to Palm to run it right. We shall see if that happens.

[JoJoCal19]

Originally Posted by CFreymarc

There is a lot of finger pointing but a lot point at the ex-CEO who pushed the Cobalt OS development, trashed it burning man-decades of project development for nothing and then resigned.

This put them a generation behind, no major product releases for two to three years and a mad rush to make a new kernel to get something out. WebOS is their home grown baby and we all shall see how the post-Hawkins Palm survives.

I think Jeff should give up on his brain-chip Numenta and come back to Palm to run it right. We shall see if that happens.

And they hurt themselves by releasing the same form factor phones and only having the old Palm OS and WinMo as the OS choices, like you said being behind.

See Palms market share in 2006? That is when they had the Treo 700wx with WinMo and I think it was the 650 with Palm OS, both in the same front qwerty form factor, which at its time was probably the best form factor, especially for business, and also the OS' were good back then. What happened? They didnt innovate or change. They kept the same form factor (just removed antenna stub) and kept the old aging Palm OS and WinMo. Obviously things were changing in 2007 and beyond with all of the new smartphones and at the time in 2007 the current Palm offerings were just extremely outdated. By the time they got the Pre and Web OS out the door, its pretty much too late. The Pre also isnt selling as hot as they would like because of their hardware. From what Ive seen with the Pre sales numbers its probably only a matter of time before Palm is extinct, which makes me sad. I still have my Palm Treo 700wx and I remember the good ol Palm days.

[tempusfugit]

Originally Posted by thegoldenmackid

I suspect that it will be neck and neck around the time of the new iPhone.

What does everyone think about Droid factoring into the situation?


I wouldn't be surprised if AAPL's growth in the smartphone market is slowed by this time next year. I think they will be growing but at a slightly lower rate. I think RIMM will decline ever so slightly, and the slack of both of these happening will have something to do with droid.

Interesting stuff no doubt. I'm considering going to droid myself, but I may wait to see what comes of the 4th generation iPhone and its exclusivity to ATT. The more I think about it, the more I think that the iPhone is a good deal in comparison to the capability/price of the competition. VZ has the network I want but none of the devices.... Droid MIGHT change all of that but I think that if I have to pay a dime more than I do for my iphone, that I won't be switching.


I think I read somewhere that something like 10% of fortune 500 companies have at least 5k iphones or something. Sorry thats such a bad piece of info given my inability to conjure it up with precision, but I don't really have any time to google it and check the actual numbers. The point is Apple will eventually be a real competitor in the business market, as they are becoming one already.

[outphase]

Originally Posted by tempusfugit

What does everyone think about Droid factoring into the situation?

I have no intention to move to Verizon (or any network for a specific phone), but I like the idea of competitors in the marketplace. When one is too dominant, it grows stale because it pushes out the competition.

[BongoBanger]

Originally Posted by tempusfugit

What does everyone think about Droid factoring into the situation?

I think it's interesting and it's one of the reasons that I'd like to see how much of the missing 23% of the consumer market that Android has and what the growth rate's been like. Droid is a product strategy across a wide spectrum of handsets so it'll be fascinating as to what happens in 2010.

I wouldn't be surprised if AAPL's growth in the smartphone market is slowed by this time next year. I think they will be growing but at a slightly lower rate.

Neither will I - not because Apple will have done anything wrong (unless they release the same phone again) but because the market will be bigger in size.

[Rodimus Prime]

Originally Posted by BongoBanger

Neither will I - not because Apple will have done anything wrong (unless they release the same phone again) but because the market will be bigger in size.

I agree with that. The Smart phone market is more than likely getting close to be saturated like the cell service market has so no more new smart phone users to grab up. Only way to get more market share is take it from some one else.

Right now for example the carriers can only grow larger by taking people from the other carriers since almost everyone has a cellphone now days.

[Goona]

Originally Posted by tempusfugit

What does everyone think about Droid factoring into the situation?


I wouldn't be surprised if AAPL's growth in the smartphone market is slowed by this time next year. I think they will be growing but at a slightly lower rate. I think RIMM will decline ever so slightly, and the slack of both of these happening will have something to do with droid.

Interesting stuff no doubt. I'm considering going to droid myself, but I may wait to see what comes of the 4th generation iPhone and its exclusivity to ATT. The more I think about it, the more I think that the iPhone is a good deal in comparison to the capability/price of the competition. VZ has the network I want but none of the devices.... Droid MIGHT change all of that but I think that if I have to pay a dime more than I do for my iphone, that I won't be switching.


I think I read somewhere that something like 10% of fortune 500 companies have at least 5k iphones or something. Sorry thats such a bad piece of info given my inability to conjure it up with precision, but I don't really have any time to google it and check the actual numbers. The point is Apple will eventually be a real competitor in the business market, as they are becoming one already.

Droid will do as much damage as the Palm Pre, HTC Hero, Blackberry Storm, the G1, Samsung Instinct, LG Voyageur etc did..

[kdarling]

Originally Posted by Goona

Droid will do as much damage as the Palm Pre, HTC Hero, Blackberry Storm, the G1, Samsung Instinct, LG Voyageur etc did..

Each one of those used up around a million potential customers within a very short time span.

It adds up.

Like the old Chinese "Death by a Thousand Cuts".

[Goona]

Originally Posted by kdarling

Each one of those used up around a million potential customers within a very short time span.

It adds up.

Like the old Chinese "Death by a Thousand Cuts".

Yet Apple sales and market share actually increased after they all came out, not decreased. I don't see any damage any of them did. Most of them have now faded into oblivion.

[Frisco]

OMG! Apple has positioned itself to eat everyone's lunch and I refused to buy Apple stock. I don't see an emoticon for smack so I will smack myself

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

That is one impressive graph, Apple.