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ZTE Pushes Past RIM
ZTE became the world’s fifth largest smartphone vendor in the second quarter, it announced today, overtaking Research in Motion (RIM).
That’s according to research firm IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, which shows that thanks to sales of eight million smartphones in the second quarter ZTE has slipped onto the top five list. RIM, which was fourth on the list in May, is now nowhere to be seen, as sales of the firm’s Blackberry handsets continue to falter.
With eight millions smartphones shifted in the second quarter, ZTE’s shipments increased 300 per cent compared to the second quarter last year, helping it snatch a 5.2 per cent share of the worldwide market and making it the fastest growing smartphone maker after Apple. This puts the firm just 0.5 per cent behind Android phone maker HTC and just 1.4 per cent behind Nokia.
Unsurprisingly, rivals Apple and Samsung fill the top two spots, holding on to 16.9 per cent and 32.6 per cent of the smartphone market, respectively.
“ZTE’s great smartphone performance in 2012 in international markets has been a major contributor to our consistent expansion, and is a demonstration of the depth and strength of our R & D,” said ZTE EVP and head of its Terminal Division He Shiyou.
“We have moved into the middle to high-end smartphone market with the recent launch of the ZTE Grand X in countries including China, Turkey and the UK, and we will continue to build our handset capabilities in the middle and high range sectors, while still delivering great lower-end smartphones like the ZTE Kis.”
RIM Goes Non-BlackBerry
April 9, 2012 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
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Research In Motion on Tuesday launched software that will allow its large “enterprise” customers to manage Apple and other rival devices through the same servers as they use for the BlackBerry smartphone and Playbook tablet.
The new Mobile Fusion software, first announced in November, is an acknowledgement of sorts by RIM of a growing preference by many users inside big corporations and government to access professional communications over their personal devices, often the Apple iPhone or iPad, or devices running Google’s Android.
RIM, which long dominated the so-called enterprise market, has watched the BlackBerry’s market share steadily erode in recent years. Unable to arrest the trend, the company now aims to generate a fresh revenue stream from it. Mobile Fusion will cost $99 per user to license and $4 per user a month, with discounts available for bulk orders.
In a second announcement on Tuesday that highlights RIM’s eroding market position, it said its PlayBook tablet now boasts 15,000 applications – still just a tiny fraction of the number available on the iPad. One of the biggest complaints about RIM’s products is the dearth of content and applications.
A recent survey from Appcelerator and IDC showed less than 16 percent of developers were “very interested” in creating programs for RIM, compared with 90 percent for Apple and 80 percent for Android.
30% Of BlackBerry Users Want Out
October 30, 2011 by admin
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The BlackBerry smartphone and its maker, Research in Motion, were in serious trouble even before last week’s global service disruption.
More than 30% of BlackBerry users in large companies said in September, a month before the outage, that they were looking to use a different smartphone device in 2012, according to a survey of 243 smartphone users in companies with more than 10,000 workers by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).
“With last week’s outage, I suspect the 30% number is even higher,” said Steven Brasen, the EMA analyst who conducted the survey. “User satisfaction with BlackBerry is by far the lowest of smartphones. A huge number are dissatisfied.”
Brasen said the survey found that 11% of BlackBerry users in large companies are “completely dissastisfied” with the device, while only 2% of iPhone users and 0% of Android users are completely dissatisfied with their smartphones.
Brasen said the opinions of end users are becoming very important to IT executives.