In spite of all the talk abour the new BlackBerry Torch phone (the one with the slide out keyboard), it looks like RIM may be in for a bumpy ride ahead. A survey by Nielsen of iphone, Android and BlackBerry users asked them what OS will be on their next handset. The chart below shows the results: iphone users showed the greatest satisfaction in sticking with the iphone OS, the BlackBerry users showed the least satisfaction with their OS and were most likely to change.

Currently Blackberry have an 18% share of the global smartphone market compared with Apple’s 13% share (and Nokia’s 38% share), it seems that RIM may be in a decline. Certainly, BBM with it’s free messaging has made their handsets popular with the teenage market, but the main driver here is free communications. With unlimited SMS packages now available it makes a less important factor. Where is the competition likely to come from? I am of the opinion that iphone will continue to do well, but sales will probably peak soon. The main threat is going to come from Android. As the handsets get better and the OS improves, sales will increase. The figures published on Android sales back this up.