The iPhone’s still the new kid on the block around these parts; regardless, it’s packing quite a successful punch. iPhone sales surpassed Windows Mobile phone sales in Q3 of 2007 in the US, but RIM (BlackBerry) refuses to back down. It’s solid line-up of business-centric phones continue to keep the number one spot in the smartphone arena here in the US.

Here’s how it went down: For Q3 of 2007 (July to September), NPD reported 4.2 million smartphones sold in the US according to RouglyDrafted. Of the 4.2 million smartphones sold, 1.12 million were iPhones, a whopping 27% of the marketshare. In other words, more than 1 in four smartphones sold in the US were iPhones.

As a result, the iPhone took second place in the smartphone market, leaving RIM at number one and kicking Windows Mobile down to three.

Furthermore, Symbian, the world leader in the smartphone market, no longer leads the way in North America. Coincidentally, Symbian kept detailed sales stats for Q3 under wraps even though the company enjoys publishing the numbers.

So what have we learned from all of this?

1. The iPhone moved the US into the “new age” of mobile phones. As companies realize that Americans like and will buy quality, well designed mobile phones, we’ll see more and more products like RIM’s future touch phone, the BlackBerry 9000.
2. In this “new age”, companies won’t be afraid of releasing high priced products. As the iPhone’s success shows, Americans will buy anything as long as they want it enough.
3. The smartphone market grew 180% after the introduction of the iPhone. As a result, there will be more of us with phones that act more like computers and less like traditional phones. Users will become less dependent on desktop computers and more dependent on the mobile computing experience.

This leaves us with one final question: Will Apple take over RIM’s number one spot sometime in 2008? While we can’t tell the future here at Blorge, it will all depend on the success or failure of the 3G iPhone and the BlackBerry 9000.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 7:35 pm under News, Opinion, iPhone.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Danny Mendez.