Remember the days when Research in Motion could sit on its enterprise laurels, assured companies would pick the BlackBerry over that upstart iPhone? Well, such security may be waning as one home town analyst warns of a ‘domino-effect’ if Apple gets a foot in the corporate door.
“We believe the potential adoption of the iPhone by key RIM enterprise users may have a domino effect, creating further market disruption for RIM,” analyst Michael Walkley of Canada’s Canacord Genuity told that nation’s National Post. Earlier this week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said his Cupertino, Calif. company had passed RIM. “I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future,” he added.
Although RIM has made attempts to widen its audience by offering more consumer-oriented devices, such as a proposed iPad rival, the company is most well-known for its enterprise-facing products. Today, however, more and more companies see both the iPhone and Google’s Android as suitable workplace alternatives.
One researcher recently announced RIM is under a “sizeable threat” by the two challengers. Companies experiencing the most growth of mobile e-mail are small- or medium-sized, according to Bernstein Research’s Pierre Farragu. This is an area “in which RIM is likely to suffer the most from competition,” he wrote.
“We believe the gap between RIM and the two leading competitors (Apple and Google) in the consumer market is increasing every quarter,” according to Sameet Kanade, analyst with Northern Securities.
[via 9to5Mac]
