Droid Incredible and iPhone price parity hurt RIM

BlackBerry sales are dropping in the US in the face of better performance by Android phones and even a resurgence for the iPhone, Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Walkley said in a research note today. He claimed that the Droid Incredible and original Motorola Droid have been eating into BlackBerry sales at Verizon during April and May. Also, the end to a sale on the Bold 9700 at AT&T has given the iPhone an even wider lead as the BlackBerry no longer has a price advantage.

The touchscreen BlackBerry Storm2 is especially weak and has continued to lose sales, Walkley said.

Even at T-Mobile, the HD2's repeated sellouts and the year-old myTouch 3G have managed to push down Bold 9700 numbers.

The analyst was careful to add that BlackBerry sales in other countries are "strong" but was concerned that RIM would have to cut prices or focus on lower-end models to keep phones selling at high rates.

RIM itself may have already predicted a shift away from high-end phones as it expected prices to drop due to runaway Curve 8500 sales at the expense of high-end models. Its outlook for at least 11.2 million phones may nonetheless be in doubt as it has already lost market share to Android and the iPhone in the winter, before the Incredible had become available.

By Electronista Staff