Apple announced quarterly iPhone sales that surpassed those of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion by nearly a million and a half units or 25%: nearly 6.9 million iPhones versus the 5.4 to 6.1 million BlackBerry units RIM sold per quarter during the same calendar quarter in 2008. Apple and RIM have non-overlapping fiscal quarters.
A slowing global economy has analysts predicting significantly less growth in the mobile phone market next year, piling on problems for Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung.
Research in Motion has launched its very first touchscreen smartphone — and promises to shadow Apple's iTunes App Store while also providing an official utility to sync its phones with Macs.
Cellular access woes initially pinned on the iPhone 3G's particular hardware now appear likely to be thwarting the BlackBerry Bold's debut with AT&T, according to a new report .
In what would surely be a blow Research in Motion, HSBC is considering a move that would strip its employees of their BlackBerry handsets and equip them with some 200,000 Apple iPhones instead.
Apple's MobileMe provides mobile device push and an innovative Wide-Area Bonjour push sync mechanism for securely updating desktop clients over the Internet. There's currently nothing identical to the service on other platforms, but there is some feature overlap with Microsoft's Exchange Server in corporate settings, RIM's BlackBerry mobile push messaging, and web-based service offerings from Google and others. Here's a look at how MobileMe compares in price and features.
A small patent licensing firm hopes to skim profits from Apple and other top smartphone makers by suing them for allegedly violating no less than ten patents relating to GSM phone technology and voice encoding.
A Microsoft filing with the US government reveals a newfound worry that the Windows developer's traditional stance of selling software alone won't work against an increasingly profitable Apple — a concern that may magnify as iPhone 3G pushes Apple's cellular market share past one percent worldwide.
As detailed in the previous segment introducing its hardware features, the second generation iPhone 3G catches up with two of the largest competitive features offered by other higher-end smartphones: faster 3G network access and GPS. Here's a look at how Apple's smartphone compares in other areas, as well as how it stacks up against the original iPhone. (Comparison chart on page 3).
Blackberry maker Research In Motion is reported to be readying Thunder, its answer to Apple's iPhone, for an October release alongside a partnership with Real's Rhapsody music service.
Although it believes Research In Motion's dominance of the enterprise market remains secure for the time being, Needham & Co. downgraded shares of the BlackBerry maker this week, explaining that the same cannot be said for its primary growth driver of the past two years — the consumer market.
Apple during the first quarter of 2008 rode the booming smartphone market to sales of more than 1.7 million iPhones, good enough to make it the No. 3 manufacturer of multi-function handsets worldwide, according to a report released Friday by market research firm Gartner.
Switzerland will be yet another carrier offering the 3G iPhone, claims a local newspaper. Meanwhile, rumors have surfaced of a "true" iPhone-slaying touchscreen BlackBerry; Google has launched a new iPhone reader beta; a study finds the iPhone still a small player on the web; and Apple has been deemed of the friendliest brands for gays and lesbians.
With the announcement of the first 3G BlackBerry compatible with the same high-speed networks as the upcoming 3G iPhone, Research in Motion has set itself up for what will likely be the defining smartphone battle of 2008.
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Prince McLean
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