Looks like if you put Apple and RIM side by side when it comes to market shares, RIM is doing much better. IDC the research firm has revealed some date showing that the Apple iPhone sales are so much slower during the 1st quarter compared to the fourth quarter last year.

Apple market shares dropped from 26.7 per cent in the fourth quarter to 19.2 per cent in the first, whereas RIM’s market share rose to 44.5 percent from 35.1 per cent in the fourth quarter. If you want to know where HTC came I can tell you they ranked fifth and Samsung ranked fourth in the US market with 4.1 per cent and 8.6 per cent of the market, Palm’s market share rose to 13.4 per cent in the first quarter, from 7.9 per cent in the fourth.

The question is “Why has the iPhone’s market share declined? Could it be the fact that RIM and PALM are better at pursuing smartphone users, my personal guess would have to be the fact that no one is really buying the Apple iPhone at the moment because they are all waiting for the coming soon Apple 3G iPhone. Apple did reveal that they sold 1.7 million iPhones which is indeed down from the 2.3 million units it sold during the fourth-quarter holiday shopping season.

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