According to a report in Macworld, Palm and RIM’s BlackBerry should be prepared to lose market share to Apple’s iPhone.
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“The iPhone is a game changer, weaving together a wide array of computer-like functions,” he explained. “Given the choice between a BlackBerry and iPhone, we believe a material percentage of consumers will opt for the iPhone once exciting applications for the phone begin to proliferate in the second half of the year. BlackBerry sales should continue to grow but at a materially slower rate than they would have in the absence of the iPhone”, noted Wolf.
As for Palm, Wolf said it faced the deepest challenge and that the company had “lost its way.”
Wolf also said that Apple’s iPhone may take market share from both competing firms once it introduces new enterprise friendly features in June or July. “RIM will see some impact in its core enterprise markets, while the expected diversity of third-party iPhone applications would hammer Palm’s place in the consumer market”.
RIM’s market leadership was based entirely on the incompetence of the competition, according to Wolf. “RIM’s competitors until quite recently were simply inept. Their failure stemmed less from their ability to design sleek phones than in their choice of an operating system on which to run them,” he explained.
