John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

57 Percent of US BlackBerry Owners Would Rather Not Be

Given the number of Android smartphones currently available in the United States and the number of carriers peddling them, is it really all that surprising that they outsold Apple’s iPhone in the last quarter? Far more surprising is the fact that this is the first time they’ve done so to date–after all, the iPhone is available in the States in just two models on a single carrier.

So as revelations go, Nielsen’s announcement this morning that Android now represents 27 percent of new U.S. smartphone purchases, ahead of the iPhone’s 23 percent, is more of a “what took so long” than a “Breaking Away”-style victory. More interesting are the research house’s observations on user loyalty, particularly with regard to Research in Motion (click image to enlarge).

Among current iPhone owners, 89 percent say their next handset will be another iPhone, six percent say it will be an Android device and two percent claim it will be a BlackBerry.

Among current Android device owners, 71 percent say their next handset will also run Android, 21 percent say it will be an iPhone, and three percent say it will be a BlackBerry.

Obviously, quite a bit of loyalty in the market for both. But what about for the BlackBerry, which claims a 35 percent share of the U.S. smartphone market–greater than iPhone or Android?

Not even close. Only 42 percent of current BlackBerry owners are loyal to the device–29 percent say their next smartphone will be an iPhone; 21 percent say it will be an Android device; and seven percent say it won’t be either of those three.

So more than half of the BlackBerry’s current U.S. user base plans to dump it for a rival device first chance it gets. A troubling metric for RIM, but one that may begin to change this week if the company debuts BlackBerry OS 6 and the BlackBerry 9800, as expected.

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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The problem with the Billionaire Savior phase of the newspaper collapse has always been that billionaires don’t tend to like the kind of authority-questioning journalism that upsets the status quo.

— Ryan Chittum, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review about the promise of Pierre Omidyar’s new media venture with Glenn Greenwald