Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has been trying to crawl back into the good graces of consumers with its BlackBerry 10 devices, but it’s rapidly losing market share—even to Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK). Windows Phone passed BlackBerry for third place in the market share race, and now that we have the latest quarterly results from both companies, it seems clear that Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) is pulling ahead.
Nokia reports results
This morning Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) released its latest quarterly results. They weren’t great, but they weren’t terrible either. And they’re contrasted with the especially dismal results from Research In Motion (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) a few weeks ago.
Nokia’s report showed that sales of its Lumia Windows Phone handsets rose 32 percent quarter over quarter, setting a new record of 7.4 million units. In the previous quarter, the company sold just 5.6 million Lumia devices, and in the quarter before that, it sold 4 million. It seems clear that sales of Windows Phones are accelerating quite rapidly.
Research In Motion Ltd (BBRY)’s Results Show Slow Sales
Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s latest quarterly report also indicated that it sold more BlackBerry 10 devices in the quarter than it did in the previous quarter. However, the increase was far smaller than Nokia’s increase was. The company jumped from 6 million BlackBerry devices in the previous quarter to 6.8 million in the most recently completed quarter.
Interpreting The Numbers
So it certainly looks like Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s chances of recovery are dimming quite rapidly, although there’s always a chance, albeit a slim one, that things could change. One key piece of information that was missing from the BlackBerry maker’s most recent report was a separation of the number of BlackBerry 10 devices and the number of BlackBerry 7 devices. So we don’t really know whether there is a shift into the company’s new models.
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) on the other hand, did break the numbers down for us a bit because it shows a shift from feature phones, which had been the company’s profitable handset business, over to Lumia Windows Phones. Of course it was in Nokia’s best interest to highlight this shift because of how many analysts criticized it for the falling feature phone sales in the first quarter results. The important thing is to show a shift to the new operating system.
Where Is BBRY’s OS Shift?
So it’s worth asking whether it was in Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s best interest not to disclose the mix of BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry 7 devices. It certainly would be if the BlackBerry 10 devices are not doing well. Investors want to see success in the new operating system, and thus far, we haven’t seen it yet.
Jefferies analysts said earlier this week that the company slashed its BlackBerry 10 builds by 50 percent, another indicator that the new operating system might not be catching on. Once again we’re left with questions about how long the company will be able to hang onto its rapidly declining market share.
