RIM drops in market share: a dying species?

Android maintains its position at the top of the totem pole while Apple takes the number two spot

ComScore has released the latest smartphone market statistics, and the data points to the slow and painful death of RIM, like the sick member of a pack of wildebeest left to die alone in the woods. Dramatic! As many know, Android finally eked past Apple in November, and jumped ahead of RIM in January, knocking RIM to the number two slot for the first time. But today, comScore’s data shows RIM continuing on its steady downward path as Apple slid up ahead to take the number two spot, knocking RIM to number three.

RIM’s slow but imminent demise is concomitant with both Android and Apple’s rising market shares. As of April 2011, Android had a 36.4% share of the smartphone market, while Apple came in second with a 26% marketshare. Meanwhile, RIM is now dangling at the bottom with 25.7% of the market.

By comparison, in January, Android had 31.3% of the market, while RIM took 30.4% and Apple claimed 24.7% of the market. How long can RIM hold on? It’s probably not going to fall below Microsoft or Palm (Palm is still around?!), which take 6.7% and 2.6% of the market, respectively. But the Blackberry is a dying species.

Personally, I don’t know anyone with a Blackberry, and years ago, when there were exactly three people in my Facebook contact list who did own Blackberries, they were acquired secondhand from parents and friends who were switching to iPhone and Android (these were also people in their 20s, I should add).

The study surveyed 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found that Android was the top operating system while Samsung took the top spot among handset manufacturers. In the three months ending in April, 234 million Americans aged 13 and older used mobile devices.

Texting remains the primary activity among mobile subscribers, while browser usage, app downloads, accessing social networks, playing games, and listening to music were all up by approximately two percentage points.