Despite caveats that smartphones and enterprise devices are only roughly analogous, based on whether the operating system can be modified to run enterprise applications, the North American smartphone market offers a snapshot of enterprise handset vendors and their wares.
According to recent market data from ABI Research, Research In Motion Ltd. held 44% of the market in the second quarter, up from 33% in the year-ago quarter-the only top-four vendor to gain market share for the period.
These gains are largely on the strength of the company’s commitment to constantly refreshing its device portfolio to address various technical advancements or business traveler needs, according to Avi Greengart, analyst with Current Analysis, as well as its basic proposition of end-to-end e-mail solutions for enterprise that can run on any network.
Palm Inc. held 24% of the smartphone market in the second quarter, down from 33% the prior year, which roughly mirrors the market’s perception that the Palm OS has not kept pace with the market. Yet its position at No. 2 was double Motorola Inc.’s share and nearly quadruple Nokia Corp.’s share, perhaps due to some entrenched loyalty to its brand.
Motorola held 11% of the smartphone market in the second quarter, down from 15% in the year-ago quarter, perhaps because the vendor had yet to refresh its Q device, its only U.S. smartphone offering, during the quarter. That refreshment came in September as Verizon Wireless picked up the Moto Q Music 9m, the first in a “family” of Qs that likely will land at other carriers.
Nokia, of course, is the world’s leading smartphone vendor, holding well over half the global market. It currently holds only 6.5% of the U.S. market, down from 8% in the second quarter of last year. But that’s the smallest drop among RIM’s contenders and Nokia has aggressively moved to improve its North American fortunes with an announcement earlier this year that it would sell its E61i and E65 devices through a wide variety of channels.
The “other” category in ABI Research’s smartphone market share findings grew to 14.5% from 11% between the second quarter of this year and the year-ago quarter, which covers such smartphone contenders as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.; HTC Corp., which is pumping its Tilt at AT&T Mobility and its Touch at Sprint Nextel Corp.; Hewlett-Packard Co. reminded everyone of its continued efforts in the enterprise space by launching its iPAQ 900 Series Business Messenger and its iPAQ 600 Series Business Navigator last month.
