Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Curve moved past Apple’s iPhone to become the top-selling smartphone in the US in the first quarter of the year, research firm NPD Group reported on Monday.
NPD said a “buy-one-get-one” promotion by carrier Verizon Wireless helped push the Canadian company’s BlackBerry Curve past the iPhone 3G in the first three months of the year.
It said RIM’s share of the consumer smartphone market increased 15 percent over the previous quarter to nearly 50 percent of the smartphone market in the first quarter of the year.
Apple’s and Palm’s share declined 10 percent each, NPD said.
NPD said the BlackBerry Curve was the top-selling smartphone in the first quarter followed by the iPhone 3G, the BlackBerry Storm, the BlackBerry Pearl and the T-Mobile G1.
“Verizon Wireless’ aggressive marketing of the BlackBerry Storm and its buy-one-get-one BlackBerry promotion to its large customer base contributed to RIM capturing three of the top five positions,” NPD analyst Ross Rubin said.
“The more familiar and less expensive Curve benefited from these giveaways and was able to leapfrog the iPhone, due to its broader availability on the four major US national carrier,” he said.
The iPhone is available through a sole carrier in the US, AT&T.
NPD also said that smartphones now make up 23 percent of cellphone sales, up from 17 percent in the first quarter of last year.
“Even in this challenging economy, consumers are migrating toward Web-capable handsets and their supporting data plans to access more information and entertainment on the go,” Rubin said.
Apple’s iPhone 3G was released in July of last year and was the best-selling smartphone in the US in the third and fourth quarters of last year.
Meanwhile, RIM and Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced an alliance to provide applications and services for the BlackBerry.
“Emerging models of communications and collaboration have created an opportunity for RIM and HP to provide service-based mobile solutions that deliver value to customers,” HP executive vice president Ann Livermore said.
“Through our collaboration with HP, businesses will have access to an expanded set of applications and services for their BlackBerry smartphone deployments,” RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said.
HP and RIM said the services being offered included giving the Blackberry the ability to wirelessly print e-mails, documents, photos and Web pages from anywhere.
HP CloudPrint for BlackBerry is “printer-agnostic and driverless and requires simple Internet access,” they said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique