Katie MarsalAfter a symbolic victory over Research in Motion, Apple may have its fortunes reversed as the BlackBerry maker has almost exactly matched iPhone 3G summer sales during the fall.
Even as a "challenging" world economy threatened to undo RIM's success, the firm says it earned about $2.8 billion in revenue, a dramatic 66.3 percent leap over the fall quarter in 2007. Roughly 81 percent of that money is chalked up to phone sales, while the rest is split across services and software.
Much of the increase is credited directly to a trio of phone launches in the period that included the BlackBerry Bold, Pearl Flip and Storm. Despite frequently hostile reactions by reviewers to the Storm, the company's first-ever touchscreen phone, the company said in a statement that its new lineup was being snapped up at an "even faster pace" than anticipated.
In a financial conference call held after the close of the stock market, the company noted that the Storm's launch with Verizon on November 21st represented the single largest day for new subscriber additions in RIM's history and that it has had trouble keeping up with demand for both the American carrier and recent Canadian introductions.
It's Verizon's best-selling device, RIM also said during the call, though the exact sell-through hasn't been given.
The shipment figures mark a surprising inversion for the BlackBerry creator, which suffered the embarrassment of being outperformed by Apple this summer after just over a year of iPhones competing in the same marketplace as RIM's products. Apple shipped 6.9 million handsets in the first quarter of the iPhone 3G's existence but will now have to almost match its launch figures to reclaim its lead — a feat considered difficult by analysts warning of possible weaker iPhone sales during the holiday season.
Not all was positive for RIM. Although it expects to fare well in its winter quarter, which lasts December through February, the company says that it added a relatively modest 2.6 million new BlackBerry service subscribers in the fall versus the 2.9 million predicted earlier in the year. The shortfall points to more BlackBerry sales heading to existing users than to new converts; during its financial call, RIM attributed much of this to the Bold where the Storm and other devices were split more evenly between newcomers and veteran users.
Both Apple and RIM have less to fear than Palm, however: the Treo-making pioneer sold through just 599,000 of its smartphones over the same three months tracked by RIM, leading to a 13 percent tumble compared to fall 2007 that will add to the market share of its larger American rivals.
-m.jpg)
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Sponsored Content
40 Comments
Both Apple and RIMM's sales figures were padded via channel stuffing, so I don't know if you can trust either 6.9 million number, particularly if RIMM refused to offer sell-through numbers, while we know that Apple's sell-through was about 4.9 million.
However, this is good news for Apple stock, as anything RIMM can do Apple can do better, at least lately the iPhone has to be selling better than RIMM's offerings.
Now what about all the stories of returned and returning Blackberry Storms? They can sell boatloads, but if a third to half come back, they're screwed.
I'd agree this is very good news for Apple. I've been surprised at how successful RIM has been with their new lineup, but ultimately Storm users are going to be open for a different solution in time-- it just isn't that good from the three minutes I spent with it.
Some of the analysts are thinking Apple will beat 7MM iPhones for Q1. I don't buy it, but... it would make things interesting.
Now what about all the stories of returned and returning Blackberry Storms? They can sell boatloads, but if a third to half come back, they're screwed.
People who tried to discount the iPhone cited returns as well, but they're never actually very high. If it were, the internet would be completely inundated with the story.
Now what about all the stories of returned and returning Blackberry Storms? They can sell boatloads, but if a third to half come back, they're screwed.
Give me a break with those numbers. Totally nuts.
There were tons of Verizon subscribers who wanted an iPhone but bought this because they couldn't have one. They'll keep them too.