Blackberry

The top 3 smartphones sold in 2011 were iPhones

The iPhone has seen an enormous amount of success worldwide. Apple announced during its fiscal Q1 2012 earnings report that the iPhone sold a total of 37 million units in one quarter. Ranked the third phone manufacturer in the world, Apple is continuing to sell an abundance of iPhones.

When it comes to iPhone sales in the US, Apple sold the top three smartphones in 2011, according to a new report released by ComScore. The iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4S found their way into the most hands of consumers...

Halliburton to Switch Entire Company From BlackBerry to iOS This Year

Halliburton, based out of Houston, Texas, is one of the largest energy services companies in the world. It has operations in more than 70 countries and employs over 60,000 people.

Given that information, you can see why it's such a big deal that the company has recently announced its intentions to ditch RIM's BlackBerry platform in favor of the iPhone and iOS...

RIM Looking into BlackBerry Messenger for Other Platforms

RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins may have inherited a sinking ship, but he seems determined to explore all avenues in his attempt to find an escape route for the ailing Canadian firm.

Having previously been very keen to keep its BlackBerry Messenger crown jewel as a key feature that is exclusive to its hardware, BlackBerry smartphones may not be the only ones to support it some time in the future. RIM's new CEO outlined his company's openness to such a move during an interview with CrackBerry.

If RIM was to license its SMS-like instant messaging system to third parties then it could stript the firm's handsets of arguably their biggest feature...

iPad Takes 96% of Tablets Activated in Enterprise, iPhone Takes 53%

Apple may appear to be the biggest tablet vendor on the planet with the company selling iPads hand over fist, but it seems that end-users are not the only ones taking a shine to the tablet.

According to new figures from enterprise mobile services vendor Good Technology, the iPad made up 96% of the tablets activated at the 2,000 companies that use its services.

The iPhone is proving popular in the enterprise also, with 53% of the smartphones activated being of the Apple variety...

RIM’s Co-CEOs Step Down, Former COO Takes the Helm

Breaking news out of Waterloo, Canada tonight. Research In Motion's Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have stepped down from their co-CEO roles. The company's former COO, Thorsten Heins, has been tapped as their replacement.

RIM's board of directors and major stock holders have been calling for the move for quite some time now. The company, which was once a major player in the smartphone industry, is now holding on to a dismal 6% of the market...

iPhone Usage Dropped Almost 5% During December

Despite what is sure to be a record-breaking month for Apple's iPhone sales, it appears that the handset's usage share may have actually fallen by almost 5%, if new figures are to be believed.

Advertising network Chikita has released data based on the number of ad impressions across its network while highlighting the top smartphone makers in the arena, with the iPhone seeing a reduction in its share during December.

The big gains came from Android-loving HTC and Samsung during the same period...

SMS on the Decline with iMessage and IM to Blame

This Christmas saw lower than normal numbers for SMS, according to new numbers released by Forbes. As is to be expected, certain times during the year cause higher than usual numbers of SMS messages to be sent.

Major sporting events are one cause, as is events Christmas and the ringing in of a new year. The numbers this year show that we sent less messages through the carriers' SMS networks than we did last year, which will no doubt be a concern to those same carriers who have been overcharging us for years to send a few characters of text.

Apple’s App Store is Worth More Than All of RIM

Things aren't looking good for Research in Motion. The Blackberry makers have failed to produce a viable smartphone competitor for the market year after year, and stock has continued tanking to new lows.

With RIM's stock reaching $13.44 per share, the total company value was at $7.04 billion as of last week. The App Store is worth $7.08 billion, making the entirety of RIM worth less than only one part of Apple's business.

10% of US Mobile Subscribers Own iPhones

A new survey carried about by comScore claims that only 1 out of 10 American mobile subscribers own an iPhone, with Apple's handset reaching the 10.8% mark as of October 2011.

The survey also suggests that Samsung is currently the top OEM in the country, with their phones currently in the hands of a quarter of all cellphone owners.

In fact, of the top five OEMs in comScore's chart, Apple sits fourth, behind Samsung (25.5%), LG (20.6%) and Motorola (13.6%). Canadian firm Research In Motion takes fifth place with an ever-decreasing share of the market. Not great times for BlackBerry fans at all...

RIM to Offer Enterprise Tools for iPhone and Android

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That's the approach BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is taking with its ailing smartphone market. The company has announced that it will be offering an easy way to get iPhones and Android users plugged into its enterprise tools.

The move by the once-dominant force in the business smartphone industry illustrates the relevance that Apple and Google have made in a sector that was almost entirely owned by RIM not that long ago.

Perhaps more importantly, this may well be the first sign of RIM trying to move away from offering hardware, in an attempt to concentrate on the software and security their past successes were built on.

iPhone Owners Are More Loyal Than Android Owners

We love our iPhones here at iDB, and even if we do play with an Android or Windows Phone 7 device here and there, we always come back to our iDevices without fail.

According to a new study by research firm GfK, we're not the only ones captivated by our fruity phones. The report claims that of the survey's 4,500 participants across Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, China, the United States, and Japan, 84% of current iPhone owners said they would buy another iPhone in the next twelve months.

That number drops to a comparatively low 60% for Android users...

VoIP-Based Services Like iMessage Reportedly Eating Carriers’ Lunches

With third-party instant messaging apps, Apple's own iMessage, and VoIP services becoming more prevalent, it is to be expected that at some point mobile networks will see a reduction in revenue as people move away from using SMS and voice calling.

What we didn't really expect is the move to start happening so soon. But according to one report, carriers are already feeling the pinch.

Research carried out by infrastructure solutions provider Mavenir Systems on behalf of mobileSQUARED suggests that carriers are already finding that third-party solutions are beginning to impact their business, and it's only going to get worse for the bottom line...