Apple and Blackberry have recently been involved in a war of words over the touchy subject of tablets and market-share. However, according to a report by Strategy Analytics, the numbers are stacking in Cupertino’s favor. The report indicates that Apple has shipped 14.1 million iPhones in the third quarter of 2010. BlackBerry on the other hand shipped only 12.3 million handsets in the same period. This is the first time Apple has outdone their fruity counterparts on a quarterly basis. Nokia still retains their top spot, shipping an impressive 26.5 million smartphones in the quarter. These figures add insult to injury, following Steve Jobs’ tirade on BlackBerry during last weeks conference call.
“We’ve now passed RIM. And I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future. They must move beyond their area of strength and comfort, into the unfamiliar territory of trying to become a software platform company. I think it’s going to be a challenge for them to create a competitive platform and to convince developers to create apps for yet a third software platform after iOS and Android. With 300,000 apps on Apple’s App Store, RIM has a high mountain ahead of them to climb” — Ouch!
BlackBerry is slated to launch the Bold 9780 and Style 9670 soon, yet it remains to be seen whether RIM has the chops to stay competitive in this cut-throat ever-evolving smartphone market.
UPDATE: There was an inaccuracy in the iPhone sales figures quoted by LoopInsight. The correct number of iPhones sold in Apple’s Q4 FY2010 was 14.1 million, not 15.4 million.
[Via LoopInsight]
