With just a single phone model in its repertoire (two including the iPhone 3GS, which is still available for purchase), IDC reveals Apple has passed RIM to become the fourth largest cell phone vendor in the world. Last quarter, Apple sold 14.1 million iPhone units to snag 4.1% of the global market. RIM rang up about 12.3 million units over the same period and slipped into fifth place globally. Sony Ericsson was displaced from the top five list. The top three manufacturers on the list remained unchanged, with Nokia having sold 110.4 million units (32.4% market share), Samsung unloading 71.4 units (21% market share) and LG hawking 28.4 million phones (8.3% market share). This news, obviously, is not good for the BlackBerry maker. RIM recently introduced its next-generation operating system, BlackBerry 6, and also launched its first touchscreen/QWERTY hybrid handset alongside a good amount of hype. Still, it was passed by Apple, which will only pick up pace in 2011 with the expected introduction of a CDMA iPhone model. IDC’s full press release can be found after the break.

Apple Joins Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors as Worldwide Market Grows Nearly 15% in Third Quarter, According to IDC

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Oct 28, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The worldwide mobile phone market grew 14.6% in the third quarter of 2010 (3Q10), the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, driven in part by the fast-growing converged mobile device category. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 340.5 million units in 3Q10 compared to 297.1 million units in the third quarter of 2009.

The growing popularity of converged mobile devices, or smartphones, with consumers and businesspersons is evidenced by the appearance of a second smartphone-only vendor in the top 5 ranking. Apple moved into the number 4 position worldwide in 3Q10, joining Research In Motion (RIM) as one of the world’s largest mobile phone suppliers. RIM has spent three quarters on IDC’s leaderboard. Apple and RIM also posted the highest-growth rates among the top 5 vendors last quarter.

“The entrance of Apple to the top 5 vendor ranking underscores the increased importance of smartphones to the overall market. Moreover, the mobile phone makers that are delivering popular smartphone models are among the fastest growing firms,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker. “Vendors that aren’t developing a strong portfolio of smartphones will be challenged to maintain and grow market share in the future.”

Apple, RIM, and the vendors producing Android-based smartphones have put noticeable pressure on Nokia, the overall market leader. “Nokia still leads all vendors by a significant margin for converged mobile devices and mobile phones as a whole,” said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. “However, Nokia’s grip on the traditional mobile phone market has been somewhat loosened, as multiple Chinese vendors have gained ground, especially within emerging markets. To bolster its overall competitiveness, Nokia has been focused on improving its smartphone offerings.”

Market Outlook

IDC believes the worldwide mobile phone market will be driven largely by smartphone growth to the end of 2014. “The smartphone is becoming the focal point of the personal communications experience,” noted Restivo. “As a result, new market growth will be increasingly generated by smartphones. This year, we are expecting the smartphone sub-market to grow 55% year over year.”

Regional Analysis

Competitive forces emerged in the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) region last quarter to the detriment of market leader Nokia. In emerging markets, brands such as Micromax, Nexian, and i-Mobile chipped away at Nokia’s market share. Android-powered smartphones also gained momentum across the region at the expense of Nokia. Samsung gained ground in South Korea while Huawei, Lenovo, and ZTE launched devices in several markets. In Japan, mobile phone market growth was driven primarily by domestic vendors Sharp, Panasonic, Fujitsu, and NEC. The Western European mobile phone market’s growth was largely attributable to smartphones, which grew thanks to the iPhone 4 and Android-powered devices from HTC and Samsung. Demand was also stoked by large operator device subsidies that helped to keep consumer interest in smartphones high. At the same time, the CEMA handset market grew slowly in 3Q10. As a result, smartphone volumes are growing substantially but still only comprise one-fifth of total shipments for the regions combined. This is modest compared to more economically-developed regions. The United States mobile phone market was characterized by growth in the smartphone market. Grabbing headlines were the Apple iPhone 4, RIM’s BlackBerry Torch 9800, the HTC EVO 4G, and Motorola’s new DROID X and DROID 2, all of which were launched last quarter. Not to be overlooked was Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone lineup, which were launched at all of the major carriers last quarter. Traditional mobile phones, meanwhile, fought back with smartphone-like functionality, but saw their overall share of the market continue to decline. In Canada, Android-powered handsets gained momentum as Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and Motorola shipped new models. Huawei and ASUS, low-cost providers of Android devices, entered the market. RIM’s BlackBerry Torch was announced while the iPhone 4 was introduced to great fanfare. Despite continued economic sluggishness in some countries, the Latin American region grew as a result of higher smartphone adoption. Vendors like Alcatel, ZTE, and Huawei have targeted Latin America aggressively with entry-level models in an effort to steal share from Nokia, the overall market leader in the region. These models are lower-cost product offerings designed to meet the needs of basic users. Motorola’s Android-powered devices have also grown quickly in the region due to the popularity of models like the QUENCH, Backflip, and Milestone.

Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors

Nokia maintained the top spot in the overall mobile phone market despite year-over-year unit shipment growth of less than 2% in new chief executive Steven Elop’s first quarter at the helm. The company grew converged mobile device shipments 61% in 3Q10, but average selling prices for the device type dropped to EUR136, compared to EUR190 in the same quarter last year. Nokia attributed the plunge to price pressure from competitors and its stated desire to reach more customers. Nokia hopes the C8 and C7 devices will boost ASPs in future.

Samsung marked a new milestone during the third quarter, pushing through the 70 million unit mark for the first time in the company’s history. In addition, the company more than doubled the number of converged mobile device shipments from the previous quarter. Driving this was the worldwide release of its Galaxy S i9000 converged mobile device, as well as its bada-based Wave model. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Samsung appears poised to bring more smartphones to market, with a new Wave 2 awaiting launch and more mass-market devices for emerging markets.

LG Electronics missed its 3Q10 total mobile phone and smartphone shipment growth targets, resulting in an overall double-digit shipment decrease when compared to the same quarter one year ago. LG has yet to make a significant impact in the smartphone category unlike its competitors. Although operating margin returned to the same levels as a year ago, sales and profitability both fell significantly. By the end of the quarter, LG replaced its CEO Nam Yong with Koo Bon-Joon, head of LG’s trading firm, LG International.

Apple leapt ahead of several vendors in 3Q10 including RIM, which it surpassed by 1.7-million units, and Sony Ericsson by 3.7-million units. The company’s record shipment performance can be attributed to the introduction of the iPhone 4 in 17 new countries last quarter. The record performance came despite “Antennagate,” the name used to describe the controversy around alleged iPhone reception problems, in July.

Research In Motion posted a record number of unit shipments in 3Q10. The BlackBerry maker continues to grow in Latin America, for example, due to the success of the Curve 8520 entry-level model, which has helped drive growth in most emerging markets. The vendor’s results were also boosted by the introduction of the higher-cost Torch in the United States, a key market due to the size and intensity of competition.

SonyEricsson, which shipped 10.4 million units in 3Q10, fell off the Top 5 list for the first time since the Tracker was conceived in 2004.

[CHART]

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, October 28, 2010

Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.

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Following news that RIM made an initial build of its QNX-based OS simulator available for Windows and Mac, company Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis demoed RIM’s tablet live for the first time this morning at the Adobe MAX show. When RIM announced its upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet last month, the company chose not to demo the device (because it didn’t have any working prototypes on hand) and caught a good amount of criticism as a result. Following the ordeal, we imagine prepping a live demo became a priority and today, RIM can finally check that milestone off its list. Hit the break for a video of the PlayBook being demoed on the big screen at Adobe MAX and let us know what you think.

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If you’re anxious to see just what the new, QNX-based operating system on the BlackBerry Playbook is going to look like, listen up. The company has just released the Playbook OS simulator — along with the Adobe Air SDK — for both Mac OS X and Windows on its developer site. The simulator does not reveal any juicy secrets hiding in the PlayBook’s OS, and, for the most part, is pretty basic. Still, if you’re jazzed about the PB, and want to do a little spelunking around RIM’s new OS, hit the read link and have yourself a download. Enjoy!

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For those of you not following the Apple earnings-call soap opera, let us give you a brief recap. Yesterday, during the Cupertino company’s Q4 conference call, CEO Steve Jobs joined the broadcast to speak with investors — an uncommon but not unprecedented move. Jobs then began to take questions and throw verbal jabs at several industry players including Google, application maker TweetDeck, HTC, Motorola, and Research In Motion.

Google’s Andy Rubin responded to Jobs’ claim that Android’s “openness” was slang for “fragmented” with a comical tweet, as did TweetDeck founder Iain Dodsworth; Jobs insinuated that developing TweetDeck for Android was a “nightmare” due to the platform’s fragmentation. Motorola and HTC, who Jobs called out for “skinning” Android, have — up to this point — kept quiet. Who’s left? Research In Motion.

Mr. Jobs noted that Apple sold 14.1 million iPhones in its Q4 which was far more than RIM’s latest quarterly blowout of 12 million handsets. Having a flare for the dramatic, and – especially lately — not wanting to take any slack from Apple, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie released a statement in response to Jobs’ innuendoes. Some key takeaways from Mr. Balsillie’s publishing: there are people who live both inside and outside of “Apple’s distortion field,” people care about Adobe’s Flash, and 7-inch tablets are cool. Hit the jump to see the full rant-rebuttal from RIM’s Jim Balsillie.

For those of us who live outside of Apple’s distortion field, we know that 7″ tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience. We also know that while Apple’s attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash. We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple. And by the way, RIM has achieved record shipments for five consecutive quarters and recently shared guidance of 13.8 – 14.4 million BlackBerry smartphones for the current quarter. Apple’s preference to compare its September-ending quarter with RIM’s August-ending quarter doesn’t tell the whole story because it doesn’t take into account that industry demand in September is typically stronger than summer months, nor does it explain why Apple only shipped 8.4 million devices in its prior quarter and whether Apple’s Q4 results were padded by unfulfilled Q3 customer demand and channel orders. As usual, whether the subject is antennas, Flash or shipments, there is more to the story and sooner or later, even people inside the distortion field will begin to resent being told half a story.

- Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion (RIM)

[Via CrackBerry]

BlackBerry Storm users on Verizon Wireless are still feeling the burn from the AT&T exclusive launch of the BlackBerry Torch. While not everyone has a hankering for a hybrid handset, owners of the Storm and Storm 2 were more than displeased to learn that RIM will not be updating either smartphone to the latest version of its OS, BlackBerry 6. While the imminent release of a new OS 6-powered touchscreen handset will merely be salt in the wound for some, others will be happy to learn that the Storm 3, so it would seem, is almost ready for prime time. The third coming of RIM’s popular touchscreen line, the BlackBerry Storm 3, has been spotted in Cellbrite — an internal system used by Verizon Wireless service technicians to transfer information between phones. In short, another piece of the puzzle is now in place and the BlackBerry 6-equipped Storm 3 may be hitting store shelves in the near future.

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Friendly reminder, folks… RIM’s latest candybar device and lower cost QWERTY 3G handset are now available for purchase from your friendly AT&T store. If you need a refresh on the products, here we go:

BlackBerry Pearl 9100

• SureType keyboard
• 3G
• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• 1150mAh battery
• $149 with 2 year agreement

BlackBerry Curve 9300

• QWERTY keyboard
• 3G
• Wi-Fi b,g,n
• GPS
• 2 megapixel camera
• $99 with 2 year agreement

If you’re in the market for a BlackBerry handset from AT&T which one are you going to go for? Or do you think you’ll hold out for the BlackBerry Bold 9780?

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Canadian handset manufacturer Research In Motion, fresh-off a recent victory(?) in the UAE, has been given a hard deadline by the nation of India to comply with the country’s intelligence laws. According to minutes for a recent meeting between RIM and the Indian government:

RIM would be asked to adhere to the timeline of January 2011 to give the final solution wherein lawful access for BlackBerry messenger will not involve the overseas data path. Intelligence Bureau (IB) and National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), which had attended the discussions, found that the solutions offered by RIM (for BlackBerry messenger) are prime-facie agreeable. The timelines of January 2011 were also agreeable.

Presumably — as they did in the UAE — RIM will setup BlackBerry infrastructure within India’s borders in order to assuage concerns about international intelligence sovereignty. Previously, RIM called banning BlackBerry use in India “futile,” but it looks as though the handset manufacturer will agree to the governments prerequisites in order to continue operating in the second most populous country; population: 1.18 billion.

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One of our solid Sprint guys just shot us over this slide on the upcoming BlackBerry Oxford, the device we first showed the world, and the big news? A release date and price! Here is the breakdown: the BlackBerry Oxford (maybe “Style” wasn’t stylish enough?) is indeed a Sprint exclusive, and is set to launch on October 31st in the color Seattle grey. There will be a purple model being released in the near future, or as Sprint likes to put it, it’s “coming soon”. The BlackBerry 6-powered flip device will run you only $99.99 with a two year agreement after $100 mail-in-rebate. Not a bad price for a 5 megapixel-toting, full QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi and GPS capable EV-DO Rev. A device, right? So let’s hear it — yay or nay on the Oxford, guys?

Reuters is reporting that the United Arab Emirates and BlackBarry manufacturer Research In Motion have resolved differences that could have potentially left 500,000 BlackBerry subscribers without data services after October 11. “The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has confirmed that Blackberry services are now compliant with the UAE’s telecommunications regulatory framework,” reported WAM, a state run news agency. “All Blackberry services in the UAE will continue to operate as normal and no suspension of service will occur on October 11, 2010,” the news outlet continued. The UAE had threatened to shutter BlackBerry data services due to their inability to access RIM servers through legal means if necessary; BlackBerry data was handled by servers outside of the UAE which created a security and sovereignty nightmare for the Arab state. The WAM report also gave kudos to Research In Motion, citing “positive engagement” and professional “collaboration” from the Canadian company.

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Today, at the BlackBerry Developer Conference (DevCon), RIM CEO Mike Laziridis announced the BlackBerry Playbook. The PlayBook has a 7-inch hi-res widescreen display, is 9.7 mm thick, supports Flash 10.1 with hardware accelerated video, HTML 5, 1080p video, has non-proprietary HDMI and USB connections, full-HD front and rear-facing camera, support for dual-displays (with use of HDMI cable), will be able to connect with BlackBerry Enterprise Servers out of the box via Bluetooth secure pairing to BlackBerry. The device will have a 1 GHz dual-core processor (with symmetrical multiprocessing capabilities) and 1 GB RAM. The device OS, which is developed by QNX, is POSIX based and will get a native SDK which supports Adobe Air, Flash, and OpenGL 2.0.

Official Specifications

• 7” LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
• BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
• Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
• Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
• HDMI video output
• Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
• Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
• Ultra thin and portable: 
  • Measures 5.1”x7.6”x0.4” (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
  • Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
• Additional features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook will be shared on or before the date this product is launched in retail outlets.
• RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.

UPDATE: Video is after the jump.

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Today, at DevCon, RIM announced a host of new tools and services for its developers, including:

BlackBerry WebWorks™: RIM’s next-generation application platform enables developers to build full-featured applications for BlackBerry entirely in HTML-5, CSS and JavaScript.  BlackBerry WebWorks brings together existing tools, new tools and platform services for the creation of rich, integrated BlackBerry applications. Developers can leverage their existing HTML skill sets that take advantage of advanced features through APIs and services, just as BlackBerry Java® applications can do today.  This new platform merges the simplicity of HTML5 with the power of true multi-tasking, BlackBerry Platform services, true Push and more.

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM™) Social Platform: Developers can now build applications that take advantage of the BlackBerry smartphone’s social aspects, as well as the push architecture of the BlackBerry platform.   By leveraging the power and popularity of BBM, developers can weave functions – such as chat, content sharing and invitation – into their app, tying it directly to BBM.

BlackBerry Advertising Service: With just a few lines of code, developers can quickly and easily integrate advertising into their applications. Developers can include advertising in BlackBerry smartphone applications, while allowing advertisers, agencies and brands to work with a broad selection of advertising networks. RIM also is enabling new monetization opportunities to BlackBerry developers by simplifying the integration of advertising both on the development side and on the commercial side.

BlackBerry Analytics Service: RIM and Webtrends are offering a free enterprise-class analytics service for the BlackBerry developer community. BlackBerry Analytics Service will allow developers to quickly and easily add measurement into their applications and offer deep insight into how customer are using their BlackBerry smartphone applications.  With a few lines of code, developers can tie their applications to an analytics service with insights typically reserved for enterprise analytics.

BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware: This new enterprise application development platform is designed to accelerate the creation of “Super Apps” for commercial enterprise and corporate developers.  It simplifies enterprise application development and solves some of the challenges of building for mobility, including device OS compatibility and wireless connectivity.

BlackBerry Java Plug-In for MacOS X, which provides a similar level of Eclipse integration as the in-market 1.2 version for Windows;

Theme Builder 6, allowing users to personalize and brand their BlackBerry 6-enabled devices; and

BlackBerry Payment Service SDK, allowing developers to start building payment services into their applications, whether it’s enhanced in-app payments, try and buy offers, or freemium applications.

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Well, here is what we have confirmed: the keynote today, delivered by Mike Lazaridis, will focus on the next generation tablet OS platform. It won’t focus or really feature any hardware, unfortunately. Our source said it would be unlikely for RIM to announce the mysterious tablet device during a developer event. We agree. Is it possible there will be a shot of hardware on a slide during the presentation, or even a non-working device somewhere? It’s possible, but again, this will be about the platform, the developers, and software. Don’t count on a device announcement/availability.

Separately: we have heard the tablet OS is a pretty long way away from being completed. Also, the QNX-based OS that is rumored to extend to the traditional BlackBerry lineup is barely even started at this point; since internally it’s not confirmed that it will in fact power BlackBerry smartphones. We have also been told porting all of RIMs advancements like battery optimization, email compression, BES integration, etc. is a very tedious process.

Our friendly FedEx guy just dropped off a present for us — the BlackBerry Bold 9780, replacing the Bold 9700 sometime in the next month or so. As far as the physical changes, well, the device features a glossy jet black bezel, with everything else outside staying the same. We leaked an internal document highlighting the changes in the Bold 9780, and we can confirm that the device seems to be using an updated CPU, even if the clock speed is around 624MHz. The phone boots up very fast, even faster than our regular 9700 with OS 6. The 512MB of RAM in the handset leaves around 300MB free at device start up, and like we said before, OS 6 really works great on a non-touch device overall. We have a boot up comparison video of the current BlackBerry Bold 9700 with the upcoming BlackBerry Bold 9780 side by side as well as photos if you want to get your viewing on. It’s all past the break, folks!

Click on over to our BlackBerry Bold 9780 hands on gallery!

This is something that has been rumored about for a while, so here is what the Wall Street Journal is reporting… RIM will announce and show off their new tablet device at DevCon in San Francisco next week at their BlackBerry Developer Conference. Moreover, RIM has even larger plans for the new OS the tablet will run. What is said to happen, and something we have figured would happen, is that the new OS that is powering the BlackPad (or whatever name BlackBerry selects) based on work from QNX, a company RIM acquired early this year, will also power BlackBerry smartphones in the near future. This would give Research In Motion a clean break from their aging operating system which is basically tapped out right now. If RIM continues to use the current BlackBerry OS for future devices, their ability to innovate and advance along with the rest of the industry will be pretty limited. With a new OS, however, this could be great news for Canada’s favorite tech company. Food for thought, though? The OS that is currently powering the Blackberry tablet and ultimately BlackBerry smartphones is based on Adobe Flash.

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Say what you want about RIM’s hardware and operating system, for the time being they continue to bring home the bacon. Late yesterday, the Canadian mobile giant announced earnings and that a record 12 million BlackBerry smartphones were shipped in Q2 of the company’s fiscal 2011. Here are the highlights:

• Revenue: $4.62 billion, up 31% year-over-year
• Earnings per share: $1.46, up 76% year-over-year
• 12.1 million smartphones shipped in Q2
• Net income: $796.7 million

“We expect a continuation of this momentum in the third quarter as we extend the rollout of new products including the BlackBerry Torch into additional markets and benefit from heavy promotional activities and increasing customer demand as we head into the holiday buying season,” said Jim Balsillie, the company’s co-CEO. RIM’s stock price rose slightly on new of the strong earnings report (up 2% at time of publishing).

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