Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
RECENT POSTS
- Mars Rover: Stuck in the Mud
- Tranquility Base
- NASA's Ares 1-X Test: The View From Above
- The Yes Men
- The Missing Link -- Not
- Moon Crash Kicked Up Plume After All
- Moon Crash: Where's the Water?
- Green Apple: Firm is Latest to Leave U.S. Chamber of Commerce
- Recovery.gov: Your Tax Dollars at Work
- Climate: Power Companies Quit U.S Chamber of Commerce
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
Busy Signal
May 04, 2009 2:45 PM
While Apple, with its iPhone, was generating a lot of buzz (and selling its billionth app), Ross Rubin of the market research firm NPD Group reports that the BlackBerry Curve actually outsold it in the first quarter of the year.
Ross, in a statement on the NPD website: “Verizon Wireless’s aggressive marketing of the BlackBerry Storm and its buy-one-get-one BlackBerry promotion to its large customer base contributed to RIM capturing three of the top five positions.” (Reminder: Ross writes the "Tech on Deck" column for ABCNews.com.)
NPD's five best-selling smartphones for the first three months of 2009:
1. RIM BlackBerry Curve (all 83XX models)
2. Apple iPhone 3G (all models)
3. RIM BlackBerry Storm
4. RIM BlackBerry Pearl (all models, except flip)
5. T-Mobile G1
Apple may privately not mind; it's been masterful at making money with niche products. As John Paczkowski at All Things D writes, "It’s not likely we’ll ever see a similar buy one, get one free deal for the iPhone from Apple, although if we did one wonders how long the BlackBerry would be able to hold on to that top spot."
May 4, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (11)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Blackberry are the original and best format for email, imo.
Posted by: Tony Vincent | May 5, 2009 5:47:09 AM
Blackberrys are better for writing emails - iPhones for everything else.
Posted by: John Kantor | May 5, 2009 5:53:40 AM
Could it possibly be that the iPhone is only available thru 1 carrier & the BB is available thru every carrier?
Posted by: kathy michael | May 5, 2009 8:50:03 AM
Note from Ned--
Kathy, you're quite right: Apple preferred to limit the iPhone to AT&T for now. But if a lot of press reports are to be believed, other carriers are talking to them.
Posted by: Ned Potter | May 5, 2009 11:04:31 AM
There's a big difference between number of (unit) sales and profitability per customer. I think Apple's financial's show a pretty healthy profit margin per device which I'm not sure can be said for RIM especially when carriers are offering buy one, get one. Moreover, with 1 billion apps sold, Apple is continuing to make money months and even years after the original device was sold.
Posted by: Michael73 | May 5, 2009 11:26:45 AM
The ONLY reason RIM did so well is the buy one, get one deal. You have to cut their numbers in half to see what the real sales are. I went to a business meeting last week were only one person had a Blackberry and they were embarrassed about it. That's not good for RIM. They are in serious trouble and they know it.
Posted by: goddess | May 5, 2009 12:07:09 PM
that's because everyone already has an iphone.
Posted by: Jane | May 5, 2009 2:55:00 PM
Generally speaking, iPhones are for personal use and paid for by individuals. Blackberry's are much more common in the business world and that is what the vast majority of coportate users have. Their companies pick up the tab for those.
It would be interesting to compare personal use sales between the 2 companies.
Posted by: Dustin | May 6, 2009 1:11:55 PM
iPhones are great personal phones, but in business we only use BlackBerry's. We're able to provide them with several carriers, depending on who gives our users the best coverage, works well with our e-mail system, and provides the business tools we need for mobility.
Posted by: Kate | May 13, 2009 11:23:25 AM
Of course, to beat the iphone they basically had to give away 1/2 of the units.
Posted by: kay | May 18, 2009 3:59:02 PM
i phone is better
moreover, i like the design
Posted by: Best | Jun 1, 2009 7:34:48 PM
Post a comment
