RIM falling off the earth??

Reasearch in Motion (RIM), the maker of once-beloved Blackberry smartphones is continuing to lose its battle against faster adopting rivals. For the past few years, RIM has been battling Apple's IPhone, not only as a fashion phone but also as a corporate phone. The Blackberry introduced us to email on the go and expected to be the premier corporate phone of choice. However, the company didn't adapt to threats by the IPhone, separating itself by the idea that IPhones are for younger, non-professional people needing basic, web-based e-mail. RIM's expectations didn't play out correctly as professionals sought the cool, trendy IPhones as their company phones, causing RIM to lose marketshare. Today, a new competitor looms for both the IPhone and Blackberrys--Google-based Android smartphones. A number of companies are producing new smartphones using the Android OS. The greatest advantage to the Android phones is that it has a user interface similar to IPhones (touch-screen, fast processor, 3G and Wi-Fi capabilities), but are available on just about any carrier.

RIM and the Blackberry brand still have plenty of corporate backers, who mainly value RIM's security features like strong encryption and the ability to remotely wipe data off of the device. But the firm is losing market share rapidly. Sanford Bernstein's survey of 200 companies shows that about 75% have adopted phones other than Blackberrys.

(More info can be found in Thursday's WSJ on page B6)