New data about the makeup of the mobile market is not very favorable for RIM.
The company behind the once-dominant Blackberry product line lost another one million users over the past three months, according to industry tracking firm Comscore.
In total, Comscore says that as of May 2011, there are about 18.97 million users with an active RIM smartphone. That’s compared to 19.97 million in February, giving RIM the most drastic loss of customers over the time period.
That’s a distinction the company is becoming all too familiar with. Once a behemoth in the smartphone market, the word “Blackberry” has turned into something of a relic as consumers strongly gravitate to Android and the iPhone.
And indeed, over the same three-month span in which RIM lost a million users, Android’s user base grew by an amazing 6.46 million, bringing the platform’s total to 29.26 million users.
Apple also experienced growth, with 3.02 million new users over the last three months to bump it up to 20.43 million users.
RIM wasn’t the only loser, though. Microsoft, which saw a nice bump when it first launched Windows Phone 7, has been unable to keep that momentum. Between February and May, 0.87 million people abandoned Microsoft mobile platforms, which include both Windows Phone 7 and the legacy Windows Mobile operating systems.
Microsoft is hoping to reinvigorate its position in the market with a major update in the fall code-named Mango.
But for now, the story continues to be the same – Android speeds ahead of the competition, the iPhone remains an equally formidable platform, and Blackberry is tunneling the path to its certain death.
