Blackberry Trumps iPhone

Jacksonville – According to market research firm NPD Group’s “Smart Phone Update,” a monthly market newsletter, Research in Motion’s (NYSE: RIMM) Blackberry Curve outsold Apple’s (NYSE: AAPL) iPhone 3G in the first quarter of 2009. Further, according to the report, RIM’s Blackberry models Curve, Storm, and Pearl (excluding the flip model) ranked first, third and fourth among top selling smart phones. NPD Group in part attributed the Blackberry’s fifteen percent surge to fifty percent of the smart phone market to a Verizon Wireless promotion – “buy one, get one free.” Also, while the iPhone is available exclusively on the AT&T network, the Curve enjoys support on four national wireless networks.

In contrast, Apple’s annual market share fell ten percent with the 3G ranked second for the quarter. The previous two quarters, the 3G dominated the market. Overall, sales of smart phones in the United States were steady with growth at a mere one percent. However, revenue from sales dropped two percent due to decreased average prices. Smart phones represent twenty three percent of handheld phone sales for the quarter up from just seventeen percent a year ago.

The same day of the NPD Group’s report, RIM announced developer access to the ‘push’ API system ahead of Apple’s beleaguered push notification system. ‘Push’ allows applications on a smart phone the ability to notify users of real-time updates as is done with email. Both Research in Motion and Apple shares rose slightly on the news.