Does Research in Motion (RIM) is still a contender in wireless?

It appears that RIM web usage is growing, which is not the case of Apple's iPhone OS web usage. In fact, Blackberry users have doubled their Web presence over the course of the past year.

The data is from Statcounter:

Although the chart clearly shows Android's rise in terms of Web usage, it surprisingly shows Blackberry's increased market share, too.

It appears that RIM should not be discarded as as serious contender in the corporate and consumer sector. However, increased Web usage only shows that RIM users are doing more mobile Web surfing, not necessarily that the platform as a whole is making a comeback, but the new Blackberry OS (version 6), available now on the Blackberry Torch, offers a much-improved Web browser based on the open-source WebKit technology, the same technology that's used on the iPhone and on Android. Thus, we can expect more Blackberry devices in the future, and Blackberry users' Web usage will certainly grow even more.

For developers targeting Blackberry users with mobile websites or services as opposed to native applications, this increase in browsing are good news. But if you're looking to get the most return on investment for your native applications, you still need to look at the raw numbers of native application users on the top mobile platforms.  Android has the biggest momentum and most attractive ROI per app. 

Louis Rhéaume

Infocom Intelligence

louis@infocomintelligence.com