Pyramid Research just published its Q3 2009 Handset Forecasts that show a dramatic increase in demand for
smartphones. RIM which has 50% of the current smartphone marekt especially at Verizon.
Pyramid estimate smartphones will represent 31%
of new handsets sold in the US in 2009, up more than double from 15%
two years prior. Indeed, market leader Verizon claimed that smartphones
represented 40% of its device sales in Q2 2009. These smartphone sales will be propelled by US consumers' love for messaging
and mobile Internet-based services on devices with qwerty keyboards,
touch screens, HTML browsers, larger screens and sophisticated
operating systems.
Pyramid believes that Verizon
is the world leader in the sale of BlackBerry devices. Second place
AT&T, the world leader in iPhone sales, reported similar success.
AT&T sold 4.3m integrated devices in Q3 2009, and 75% were iPhones.
At the end of the third quarter, 41.7% of AT&T's postpaid base had
an integrated device, up from 22% in the year-ago period.
According to Pyramid smartphones will grow
to comprise roughly 60% of new handsets sold in 2014. By then, they expect Apple's exclusive relationship with AT&T to have ceased,
which could potentially make the iPhone available to an additional 200m
US wireless customers.
Pyramid, today, estimates that BlackBerry has nearly
50% of the US smartphone market. Assuming competitors Motorola, LG,
Samsung and Nokia are able to improve their positioning in this growing
segment, they expect BlackBerry's share of smartphones to decline to 37%
-- still enough to put RIM at the forefront of the US market with 22% of
new handset units sold in 2014.