Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) and Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) have been fighting for a distant third place in mobile market share, and we’re starting to see some signs that they’re both making headway in the fight.
Momentum For BBRY, Nokia
Forbes contributor Tero Kuittinen reports that he spoke with three major app development companies within the last week, and all three of them are seeing signs of momentum with Nokia’s Windows mobile platform. He said two of the three saw momentum on Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)’s BlackBerry platform.
Appetizer Mobile CEO Jordan Edelson told Kuittinen that six months ago, Windows Phone was the only platform that some were considering as a third ecosystem after iOS and Android, but now BlackBerry is starting to be considered by companies looking to create mobile apps. Specifically, he says Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s BlackBerry Q10 handset, which has the physical QWERTY keyboard, is the one many enterprise clients are interested in developing apps for.
According to Edelson, this makes sense because enterprise clients aren’t looking for scale and distribution size because they’re creating apps for their own ad-hoc environments. He says non-enterprise customers, on the other hand, are taking a wait and see approach when it comes to the BlackBerry platform because they care more about distribution size, which can lead to a substantial return on their investment.
BBRY And Nokia Are New Competitors
Kuittinen points out that this competition between Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) is fairly new. BlackBerry was once strong in North America, while Nokia focused on India and China. However, now Nokia is pushing into North America in a big way thanks to its partnership with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Windows Phone platform. Also BlackBerry has been focusing its efforts in China and India with its two new BlackBerry 10 handsets.
He says analysts have slowly been nudging their estimates for both Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) in their research notes. For BlackBerry’s May quarter, estimates tend to be around 5 million units now, although previously they were 3 million or 4 million. Estimates for Nokia’s Windows Phone have been pushed up by many analysts to about 7 million per quarter.
