RIM Scores with RIM Shots from BlackBerry Storm Increases, while Apple Declines, Due to Obama Effect?

By Editor Wireless and Mobile News on February 22, 2009 8:46 AM

Research firm IDC Mobile Phone Tracker reports BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) market share in the US smartphone market share rose in 2008's fourth quarter to 47.5 percent, up from 40.4 percent in the third quarter. Apple market share decreased, it dropped to 22.3 percent in the fourth quarter compared to 30.1 percent in the third.

It has lead some analysts to speculate that the increase was fueled by the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm as well as the Obama Effect.

T-Mobile, HTC, Nokia, Verizon and LG also increased their market share in Q4, while Palm, Samsung, and Motorola decreased their market shares.

The IDC Mobile Phone Tracker was not all sunshine there was noly one highlight in 2008 it was that the converged mobile devices segment (commonly referred to as smartphones) grew 22.5% over 2007, clearly outpacing the rest of the industry while the worldwide mobile phone market experienced an unusual downturn in the normally robust fourth quarter of 2008 (4Q08).

According to IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 289.0 million units, 12.6% lower than the 330.8 million units shipped during 4Q07. For the full year 2008, vendors shipped a total of 1.18 billion units worldwide, 3.5% greater than the 1.14 billion units shipped during 2007.