It seems as though it’s not going well for BlackBerry and its manufacturer RIM. Reports from two separate US-based industry analysts have posted damning sales reports, both suggesting a sluggish start to the holiday season after briefly successful launches, caused by a multitude of factors.
RBC Capital Market suggests that the new handsets, sporting BlackBerry OS 7 received, a fairly decent peak in sales but has quickly tumbled down the market leader board. The company says: “Despite on-time BlackBerry 7 launches, checks are showing slowing domestic sell-through, plus impacts from recent service outages and PlayBook challenges (delayed software, sluggish sell-through).”
The PlayBook has been in and out of trouble since its launch, launching with imperative apps such as email missing. The widely publicized BBM outage from October this year also hasn’t helped.
Fellow analysts Canaccord posted similar findings. “…Our recent checks indicate slowing sales trends post the launch of the iPhone 4S and price reductions of the iPhone 4 and 3GS.”
The caveat to this is that the sales figures in question are taken solely from the US. Official stats still see RIM riding high in markets such as Indonesia. The rest of us wait with baited breath for the first of the BBX devices; the next BlackBerry OS looks to be the platform to take RIM out of its slump. Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.