Apple’s iPhone has dramatically shaken up the smartphone market — particularly the leader, Research in Motion. In just the last three months of 2007, smartphone shipments shot up 60 percent from a year ago, according to industry research firm IDC. And RIM doubled sales of the Blackberry, adding 6.5 million subscribers in its last fiscal year, double the previous year.

But as the market has grown, the Blackberry’s market share has dropped from 45 percent to 40 percent while the iPhone took 17.5 percent in the second half of 2007. The iPhone’s “consumerization” of the smartphone market has forced RIM out of its enterprise comfort zone and into the unchartered waters of consumer marketing.

Competing Against Apple

RIM’s efforts in the consumer space have largely fallen flat, said Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research, in a telephone interview. “All their marketing stuff falls flat. It’s not persuasive, it feels forced,” he said

Competing with Apple for consumers’ wallets is a challenge. To pull it off, RIM needs

to lure third-party developers, Sterling said. “If the Blackberry is able to get ample cool stuff on the device to manufacture applications compelling to sufficient society, it’s a hedge on iPhone’s move into enterprise,” he added.

Apple’s appeal to third-party developers could easily overwhelm RIM. Apple has said it will launch a new version of the iPhone software to enable third-party applications on the iPhone and the iPod touch. Apple says more than 200,000 developers are working on applications for the iPhone.

Pressure From Android

Meanwhile, Apple will roll out Outlook and Exchange integration on the iPhone, which may give it a boost in the enterprise, putting additional pressure on RIM. “Blackberry’s smartphone share will continue to erode whether the enterprise responds to Outlook and Exchange on the iPhone,” Sterling said.

Besides the iPhone, RIM is feeling pressure from…

Original post by Chase Higgins

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