Research in Motion (RIM) has been squeezed out to fifth place as Apple has become the fourth largest mobile phone vendor on the planet.
According to IDC's quarterly statistics, Apple and RIM posted the highest growth rates out of the top five vendors. However, it wasn't enough to save RIM's skin as the company fell out of the top four. Apple blindsided RIM with 1.7 million more units sold. That still leaves Nokia in first place by a huge margin with Samsung and LG in second and third.
The drop to fifth will hurt RIM but it will smart all the more because the company is losing much needed ground, in particular in sales of Iphones to the great unwashed. Both companies are pushing into each other's product space with RIM consumerisng its portfolio and Apple heading in the other direction, getting its products seen as viable business tools.
The handbags at dawn rivalry came to a head recently with an astounding claim from a reality distorting Steve Jobs. The INQUIRER reported last week that Jobs said during Apple's third quarter earnings call that RIM wouldn't catch up now that Apple had overtaken itin phone sales. Does Jobs not know that sales can go up as well as down? In the great scheme of phone sales, 1.7 million is a mere whisker.
While Apple and RIM are fighting tit-for-tat battles, both firms have lost sight of the bigger picture. Neither has a snowball's chance in hell of catching Nokia's 32.4 per cent market share and a 98 million sales lead. But who will get that information through Jobs' reality distortion field?
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