Research in Motion Limited, the Ontario, Canada-based maker of BlackBerry handsets, is no more. But that doesn mean the Company has gone out of business (which many had expected). Instead, it has changed its name to BlackBerry - the announcement came a day after the high profile, but much-belated launch of BlackBerrys new software platform (BB10) and new handsets (Z10; Q10) on January 30.
First to be shipped out is the Z10 BlackBerry handset, a touch-screen phone. The Q10 handset, which has a physical QWERTY keyboard, may not be released until April this year. The Z10 phones, which went into sales first in the UK, followed by Canada and the UAE uptil now, have received early positive reviews: Z10 didn exactly leave the critical reviewers awestruck, nor did it receive any major shellacking.
The Z10 initial sales reports are upbeat in the UK and Canadian markets, and the BlackBerry (formerly RIM) CEO Thorsten Heins has exclaimed overwhelming response compared to past BlackBerry releases. Interestingly, he told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this week that "We are getting a substantial number of users moving from other platforms to BlackBerry. That is an interesting data point."
After the January 30 launch, the share price initially declined for RIM (now trading under the moniker BBRY), but has recovered this week. Closing at $16.05 a share at NASDAQ on February 6, BBRY gained nearly 15 percent since the launch of its new OS and latest handsets.
With the launch of a touch-screen phone, and by releasing it first to the market, BlackBerry finally adjusted to new realities of the Smartphone market. But it also took care of its loyal user base, which prefers typing on plastic keys over virtual keypads, by launching the Q10 handset. Clearly, the strategy is to hold on to its existing user base while broadening the BB platforms appeal to competitions user base.
It remains to be seen if robust early sales would translate into sustained longer-term sales. Some analysts are cautious, attributing early stock-outs at stores in Canada and UK to BlackBerrys deliberate strategy of limited initial supplies, rather than overwhelming demand.
Since the Z10 is priced in the range of iPhone and high-end Android-enabled Smartphones, some analysts are afraid that this handset will be a hard sell to touch-phone users, especially when the BB10 OS didn improve its mobile application platform. The applications available on BlackBerry World are still a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of apps available on platforms of Apple and Android OS.
But BlackBerry seems to liken its chances, particularly in the US where it once ruled, before Apple and Samsung joined the party and exposed the BB platforms inadequacies. CEO Heins told the AP in the same interview that the Z10 handset would be available in the US by middle of March. Reclaiming its market share in the US Smartphone battleground seems to be the Companys real test. Any delays in device rollout would be harmful there.
Meanwhile, the global smartphone shipments continue to grow manifold. The International Data Corporation (IDC) - an American firm specializing in ICT-related market intelligence - recently estimated that the global annual shipments reached 712.6 million in CY12, a YoY growth of 44.1 percent. Last quarter was especially robust, with 219.4 million smartphones shipped across the world.
Samsung continued its surge in the fourth quarter last year, shipping every fourth of the quarterly sales. IDC attributes this to the Korean giants broad and deep line-up of Android smartphones, particularly the Galaxy-branded android family, and also to sustained demand for its mid-range & entry-level models. Apple came second with 48 million shipments, thanks to strong sales in the regions of China and US.
Sony continued to harvest its Xperia series models, sold 9.8 million smartphones during the quarter, and came at number three among the vendors. Huawei and ZTE occupied the numbers 3 and 5 spots in shipment shares, sending out 10.8 and 9.5 million units, respectively. After targeting mass markets in the past, both companies have diversifying into higher-end models for shipments to EU and North America.
With its latest smartphone releases, BlackBerry has been able to reestablish its relevance in the smartphone market. But sustaining this relevance is the real deal, which is going to take a lot more innovation in areas such as product design, user interface and application development.
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Annual Smartphone Shipments: Market shares (%)
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CY12 CY11
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Samsung 30.3 19.0
Apple 19.1 18.8
Nokia 4.9 15.6
HTC 4.6 8.8
RIM (Blackberry) 4.6 10.3
Others 36.5 27.5
Total Shipments (mn) 712.6 494.6
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Source: IDC
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