RIM loses top spot to Apple in Canada

Canada is RIM’s homeground and it’s also where its headquarters is located, so we guess it’s kind of a big deal that according to recent reports, it seems that Apple has surpassed RIM in terms of smartphone shipments for Canada, a first for Apple and we have to wonder how this will affect RIM in the long run – will they be able to reclaim their throne with BB 10, or will this be a downhill slope for the company?

For those unfamiliar with the situation, RIM has typically outshipped Apple over the past couple of years, especially back in 2008 where the number of Blackberry devices outsold Apple’s iPhone by almost five to one. In 2010, RIM topped the iPhone by a million, and now it looks like stats compiled by IDC and Bloomberg showed that in 2011, 2.08 million Blackberry devices were shipped against Apple’s 2.85 million. It looks like Apple has finally caught up.

However RIM still has its loyal customers especially those in the Canadian banks and the government, although it seems that some are currently looking at alternative devices such as iOS and Android. In any case, the first BB 10 device is scheduled for release later this year, so we guess we will wait and see how RIM fares then.