RIM Gains Power In Global Handset Market

The Research-in-Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry has not been pulled down from its perch as one of the world leading cellphones by either the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone or Google- (NASDAQ: GOOG) powered smartphones. On the contrary, for the first time it is one of the top five selling handsets in the world.

The new IDC figures for the first quarter of 2010 shows that 295 million handsets where sold in the period. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is still the market leader with 107 million units shipped, according to Reuters. Samsung sold 64 million and LG 27 million.  RIMM sold 10.6 million and dying handset manufacturer Sony Ericsson sold 10.4 million.  Sony Ericsson has begun to look like Motorola (NYSE: MOT) three yeas ago after its RAZR product lost momentum and the company nearly died. It appears that, for now, the Google (NASDAQ: AAPL) Android OS has saved Motorola by allowing it to launch its popular Droid.

RIM’s success will probably continue, even against the onslaught of Apple and Google. It has several things that they do not. Its manual keyboard, nothing like the touchscreen keyboard of the iPhone, is still popular with fast-typing business people. And, its proprietary server system is popular with IT managers who want to track Blackberry use and keep communications relatively encrypted. The iPhone and Android-based handsets rely on the “cloud” which is, by many accounts, a hacker’s dream.

Some analysts believe that the era of the BlackBerry is nearly over. On the contrary, it has features unmatched by its competition, and that will make it very hard to catch.

Douglas A. McIntyre