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BlackBerry fans can break out the bubbly. Growing demand for its phones has helped Research In Motion move into the top five mobile phone companies worldwide in sales during the first quarter, says research firm IDC.

RIM replaced Motorola in the Top 5 chart and tied with Sony Ericsson for the No. 4 position. RIM shipped 10.6 million phones in the first quarter, while Motorola, which had been a fixture in the top-five ranking since 2004, shipped 8.5 million phones.

“This is also the first time a vendor has dropped out of the top five since the second quarter of 2005, when Sony Ericsson grabbed the number five spot from BenQ Siemens,” says Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

Apple doesn’t feature in the Top 5 chart because the company shipped 8.75 million phones worldwide in the first quarter, says IDC. Next week, IDC will release data on the top five mobile phone makers in the United States.

However, Apple has taken the top spot among U.S. phone makers, a rather small group that includes Motorola, Apple, Palm and a handful of minor players.

The worldwide rankings take into account both smartphones and feature phones. Though feature phones (cheaper, simpler devices) are still a big percentage of phones sold worldwide, low-cost smartphones are picking up in sales, says IDC.

Nokia, whose devices don’t get much love in the United States, held on to its No. 1 position worldwide, shipping 107.8 million phones in the first quarter of the year. That’s up 16 percent from the same quarter year before.

Samsung ranked second with 64.3 million phones sold, and LG shipped 27.1 million phones to bag the third place. RIM, which ranks fourth, sold nearly 2 million more phones than Motorola, says IDC.

“Key to its success in the first quarter was the popularity of its BlackBerry Curve 8520 and BlackBerry Bold 9700 across multiple markets, as well as its global prepaid offerings,” says IDC. “Strong consumer adoption, particularly among text-crazy teens, has also fueled demand for BlackBerry devices.”

Here’s a look at the top five companies worldwide by their market share:

See Also:

• BlackBerry Maker Overhauls Phone Operating System
• Research In Motion Woos BlackBerry Developers
• Google Fires at Apple, Integrates Flash Into Chrome Browser
• Android Devices Crave Google’s Attention
• Android Fragmentation Declines, But Older Versions Still Rule

Charts data supplied by IDC

Secrets of the Chumby One: it can be turned into a 3G router originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hot on the heels of the announcement of its new WebKit-based OS, TomTom confirms that it is developing an app store. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20003878-48.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Car Tech blog/a/p

In this version, you can choose to play not only as Mario, but also as characters from other games such as Metroid Prime, The Legend of Zelda, and Contra.

I’ve been a technology industry analyst for some time now, and I can tell you that the benchmark of a great analyst is the quality of the advice you give based on how well you’re able to forecast trends. In my tenure, my team hasn’t often been wrong. But let me share a secret — here’s one where we totally missed the ball.

A vendor — who shall remain nameless — briefed us in the late 90s with the idea of creating a line of PCs targeted at a mass market audience, with a special focus on the female demographic. The idea was to build PCs in a range of and shapes and focus the marketing efforts through places like Cosmo instead of the usual PC magazines. We were asked to evaluate the plan, and without the slightest hesitation I responded that it was the dumbest idea I’d ever listened to — period. (This is the tact that only an analyst can bring to the table.) I recall saying something to the effect of no user will ever buy a PC because it comes in five delicious flavors. The vendor forgot all about their plans and our analysis proved accurate — until Steve Jobs and the iMac came along. If I had to put a stake in the ground that’s when technology became fashionable.

Continue reading Entelligence: Technology is fashion and the new fashion is technology

Entelligence: Technology is fashion and the new fashion is technology originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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