As we previously mentioned here, the writing has been on the wall for Blackberry for quite some time. Anytime the king of the hill stops protecting the peak, someone is bound to sneak up, whack them on the head, and unceremoniously push them down the mountain. Such is the case now as Android has officially passed RIM in US sales. According to the latest posts, the second quarter of this year has Android holding 33 percent of the market. Trailing behind is Blackberry at 28 and iPhones at 22 percent. This would be the first time since the fourth quarter in 2007 according to TechnologyExpert.com that Blackberry could not be seen in the top spot.
This brings up a few points I think worth mentioning. First, barring a stellar product out of nowhere, Blackberry is going to rapidly become an antique. To date we have seen no compelling reason to endorse them due to a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that their phones are largely predictable and the features are lacking the sexiness that the other phones are pushing at an increasingly impressive rate.
Second, Android’s meteoric rise, at least in our opinion, is largely due to the fact that they have multiple devices, on multiple carries. At least in the carrier department, this is something Apple is lacking. Verizon has a clear subscriber base lead over AT&T so it is not all that surprising that the sales would be higher. While I do find several aspects of the Droid appealing I cannot help but to recognize that for the most part, Apple’s user experience is second to none.
In our experience this comes down to a battle of the carriers. Simply put Verizon fans are truly fans. Switching to AT&T for any reason is simply not an option. The current 11% lag behind Droid that Apple currently has will be truly tested if Barclays is correct in their 2011 prediction for the appearance of the iPhone on Verizon.
In the end though, it would appear that everyone is winning as the dramatic increase in smartphone adoption is not only creating a new industry but bringing technology closer to everyone.
