iGR: Smartphones on the upswing, RIM in the lead

A new survey focused on smartphone operating systems by iGR found that more than half of all respondents use a Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry device, while the majority of the remaining respondents use a Windows Mobile device. At least 30% of those surveyed said they were using their first smartphone device.
This comes on the heels of last week’s ABI Research report that detailed the recent surge RIM has enjoyed in smartphone market share. Palm Inc.’s share of the market equaled RIM’s one year ago, but the gap has widened dramatically with RIM surging to a 44% share and Palm declining to 24%.
The iGR study reported that 60% of the respondents said they use less than 2,000 voice minutes per month. Only 2% said they don’t use e-mail on their smartphones, and about half said they regularly need to view e-mail attachments on their devices.
At least 84% of those surveyed said they send and receive SMS, while 61% said they also use an instant messaging application. And finally, 70% of respondents said that they don’t use custom-developed applications on their smartphones.
“As compared to the results of similar surveys fielded in previous years, we have seen a significant uptake in the use of smartphones,” said Matthew Vartabedian, research manager at iGR. “What is interesting is the relatively new adoption-a sizeable percentage are using their first smartphone-as well as the consistency of the applications used: voice, e-mail, some texting and productivity applications.”
iGR concluded that the survey reveals potential for new applications and services, but also shows that the market may not be ready for more sophisticated capabilities.