ITG Investment Research analyst Matthew Goodmam has come out with some figures for smartphone sales on Verizon. Perhaps most shocking is seeing just how far Research In Motion (RIM) has fallen - BlackBerry's share has fallen from over 90% of smartphone sales in late 2009 to less than 20% today. Before you get carried away with that drop, though, there are a few factors to consider that may make the numbers just a little less spectacular.
The first consideration is that smartphone sales are increasing hand-over-fist as a percentage of sales - people are switching from their dumbphones to smartphone in spades. Granted, that's probably not nearly enough to offset the decline in sales as a percentage, but it does mean that the picture isn't nearly as ugly as it sounds at first blush. Hell, RIMM just had a great Q3, despite their notoriously plummeting market share.
A second consideration: it's not really surprising that 80% of Verizon's smartphone sales are Android, as pointed out by our friends at Androinica:
Once you stop to think about it, this headline isn’t that much of a surprise considering that Verizon’s smartphone lineup is comprised of:
- 3 Windows devices (none Win Phone 7)
- 1 Palm device
- 9 Blackberry devices
- 17 Android devices
Not that that second point takes away from the sheer awesomeness - it's just worth considering.
[Source: All Things D via Androinica]