BlackBerryMANU FERNANDEZ
Recent data suggests smartphone buyers are continuing to migrate away from BlackBerry devices, and that the trend may be picking up speed.
Last week GigaOM reported on a UBS survey of 515 smartphone users found that the Apple iPhone has a whopping 89 per cent retention rate from customers. That news was widely shared and reported on, but there was some disturbing information for Waterloo's Research in Motion buried in that report.
The survey suggested RIM saw a 62 per cent retention rate for its platform shrink to 33 per cent in just 18 months. Worse, almost 29 per cent of BlackBerry owners said they planned on jumping ship to another mobile OS, and with 55 per cent of all smartphone users saying they hoped to get an iPhone it's easy to see who might benefit.
Now, new numbers from Nielsen suggest that in the last three months Google's Android has also been stealing market share from RIM handsets. It showed that while RIM has about 18 per cent of all U.S. smartphone subscribers right now, in the three months ending in August only 9 per cent of users chose to purchase a BlackBerry. Apple's new subscribers matched its market position of 28 per cent, while Google had 56 per cent of all recent "acquirers."
Not that it's all roses for Google, that UBS report suggested that while 55 per cent of its users said they would remain loyal to Android, 31 per cent said they were planning on upgrading to an iPhone when next in the market.
Shane Dingman