Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance on the company’s earnings call in October to declare that “Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) outsold RIM.” But the company hasn’t been able to brag about that since, including today when it announced its latest iPhone figures.
To be sure, the company’s second-quarter results posted today were strong, and to date, it has sold a respectable 21 million iPhones; and will hit 1 billion downloads from the App store in the next few hours. But iPhone sales for the past two quarters have not been able to touch the volumes experienced by Research In Motion’s BlackBerry.
Here’s the breakdown:
– In Apple’s Q4, it sold 6.9 million iPhones, beating RIM’s 6.1 million phones.
– In Apple’s Q1, it sold 4.36 million iPhones, or less than RIM’s 6.7 million phones.
– In Apple’s Q2, it said today it sold 3.79 million iPhones, or less than half of RIM’s 7.8 million sales.
A couple of disclaimers on why these figures may not be entirely fair after the jump…
Even though Jobs started it, there’s a few reasons why these comparisons aren’t exactly comparing apples to apples.
First, in the fourth quarter when Apple first beat RIM (NSDQ: RIMM), there was likely pent up demand for the newly released iPhone 3G, which helped bump up iPhone sales temporarily. Second, the two companies have different financial periods. So, while Apple reported its second quarter today ended March 28, RIM’s most recent period was its fourth quarter, which ended Feb. 28 (and would therefore include one month of the busy holiday period). And finally, many expect Apple to release a new iPhone this summer, which may be causing customers to delay making any purchases until they know for sure. That probably also explains the sequential drop in iPhone sales. While iPhone sales jumped more than 100 percent year-over-year, Apple sold 15 percent fewer iPhones compared to the prior period.
Add to those facts that Apple only sells essentially one model of phone. RIM sells a variety, some of them much more budget oriented which probably helps with that stat.
Since 2008, the Buy 1, Get 1 Free blackberry campaign, and the eTrade Free blackberry promotion had given away 1 blackberry for each blackberry sold. The Buy 1, Get 1 Free blackberry campaign is ongoing. At this rate of blackberry giveaways, blackberry should outnumber all the other brands added together.
With Nokia and HTC taking away impressive shares of the mid-priced mobile phone market, and Samsung and LG rapidly taking away vast shares of the low-priced mobile phone market, Rim is facing lethal pressures in surviving the highend onslaught of iPhone, and mid to low assaults from Nokia, HTC, Samsung, LG. As corporation employments continue to shrink, Rim's revenue from corporate business continue to go down. Rim's mounting expenditures in marketing and introduction of new phones continue to eat deeper into Rim's profit margin with no end in sight as the competitions rise. Rim seems destined to RIP in the coming quarters.
When quoting sales, could you please specify that it US-only sales? Please specify regions when stating data for product sold in multiple markets.
The last RIM quarter ended February 28th 2009, so their results only reflect one 'Holiday' month December 2008, which indicates obviously a very impressive record indeed. I think at this rate they are are long long way from being RIP. Even Bono and U2 are converts, look who is sponsoring their upcoming 360 Tour – BlackBerry
Tony
CEO
ExSafe
Why don't you mention that RIMM had a 2 for 1 sale going on and that their profit margins are a LOT skinnier than Apple's.
What a biased creep you are!!!
Tony, you are right. RIM's last quarter ended Feb. 28, so it's true that the period only reflected one holiday month. I've updated the post to correct that.
Thanks Tricia, not sure who the subsequent comments are aimed at but if they are in my direction, maybe I need to clarify a few things. I do not have any allegiance to any particular Smartphone manufacturer as we have built our application on what ever device will bring greatest revenue to the company. We have initially deployed on BlackBerry because we believed it was used more extensively in the business world, this we feel was justified. The fact that their margins are being reduced yet their share price continues to rise means that the investment community has full confidence in the management strategy. There are not too many tech companies that are hiring 3000 new employees this year, so expect decreasing margins as this seems to be a ploy to dominate the space, IMHO. I am not a shareholder but just a very interested side party. We look for handset manufacturers with devices that have great screen resolutions and that business people use to manipulate office content. The upcoming device from Nokia, the N97, which I got my hands on at CTIA 2009, is really something else and I would expect us to port our product to that platform in the short term. We would like to do the same for the iPhone but other business application providers like Dataviz and QuickOffice have been slow to implement 'full' versions of their products, something that we leverage and rely on.
As I am based in Ireland I have not seen the local carriers provide the 2 for 1 deal, but then again we are a very small market comparatively
So, my family owns four Gen 1 iPhones. All will be replaced when the next model is releases. None will be replaced with Balckberry. I suggest you do the math again in a little over 60 days.
Of course, in the US, RIM is giving away half the phones it lists as "sold," so your numbers should reflect that while Apple gets $600 to $700 in revenue from each phone sold (rest from AT&T). Apple only lists phones sold at full price – there is no discounting or giveaways to create a market share.