Throughout the past few months newspapers, blogs and other media outlets have been flooded with stories featuring the smart phone. Articles regarding Canadian telecommunication company RIM’s struggle in the market as stocks plummet, as well as endless “hype” surrounding the iPhone 5 ( to be released any day now.)

An article in the Globe and Mail this past week outlined BlackBerry’s declining preference among consumers. The picture below shows that from June until August only 9% of consumers purchasing a smart phone chose a BlackBerry.  On top of that, 29% of BlackBerry users said that they were going to upgrade to an iPhone in the future and of all smart phone users 55% said they planning to acquire an iPhone.

The media keeps telling us the BlackBerry is going under, but as a Sauder student it’s harder to believe. Since moving to UBC this fall my BBM contacts have doubled. BlackBerry’s seem to dominate Sauderite’s preferences. Is it because of BlackBerry’s reputation as the classic “business phone” and we’re all trying to play the part? Or are we all just waiting for the iPhone 5 or mobile contracts to end?

It will be interesting to see if RIM makes a recovery in the following year.

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