With the new BlackBerry Storm 2 and BlackBerry Tour for Verizon Wireless in the pipeline, there's still a potential for growth in the U.S. market for Research In Motion. Today, Verizon Wireless also released its own version of T-Mobile's Pearl Flip.
However, the company's financial report for Q1 2009 reveals that there's been a slight dip in subscriber growth lately. 3.8 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added in the quarter, which gives a total of approximately 28.5 million. In Q4 2008, RIM added 3.9 million net new accounts.
There have been no new BlackBerry phones on Verizon Wireless in the period, while the other carriers' BlackBerry phones might not be as hot as they used to be. On the other hand, BlackBerry is currently getting more attention around the world than earlier. All in all, we doubt RIM is worried about the short-term outlook.
However, during RIM's period of massive growth, the BlackBerry phones have been the obvious choice for messaging users, but especially since reliable Exchange and push solutions are now offered on platforms such as Windows Mobile and Symbian S60, it seems like RIM will face some fierce competition moving forward. There's now also Palm's WebOS and Google's Android OS lurking in the dark, two platforms that are on their way to becoming prosumer/corporate- and carrier-friendly.
We've noticed that the prices on BlackBerry phones have been slashed lately (likely as a response to the competition), but it's clear to us that the company needs to take a look at its service charges as well. Direct Exchange support used to be unstable at best, but that's no longer the case, with many providers now offering a great service for $1 per month.
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