Research In Motion sees an increase in its base of wireless e-mail users from just six months ago.
They sit with their elbows raised and their thumbs tapping up and down. Some people liken the look to that of a chipmunk feasting on an acorn. It’s the look of a logged-in e-mailer, and the acorn is a BlackBerry device.
The Canadian-based company pulled ahead of PDA market leader PalmOne recently, in terms of market share. And it’s not difficult to see why. A six-month increase of one million subscribers will give any company a boost.
“It’s an exciting time as BlackBerry continues to enjoy enormous success and rapid growth around the world,” said Jim Balsillie, Chairman and Co-CEO, Research In Motion, in a press release.
One field that will see more movement should be providers of third-party applications to PDAs. A notable company in that field is Handango, whose VP of Marketing made this observation about the PDA market exclusively to Murdok:
“In a press release two weeks ago, we cited unusual strength in BlackBerry application sales and softness in the Palm OS market, so it’s not surprising to see these figures,” said Clint Patterson.
“RIM and Dell continue to lead the market with integrated wireless email and wi-fi enabled devices. According to our customer research, wireless is driving much of the demand for today’s handhelds.
“Wireless is *the* bright spot for PDAs, and those firms delivering great wireless solutions will continue to reap the rewards in this market.”
Hat tip to Amber Weyer at Weber Shandwick for her help with this story.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
