Appletell

If you can’t beat ‘em, develop for ‘em!  At the moment, that it what Research In Motion, producer of the BlackBerry, may be doing.  The company has seen falls in sales of elephantine proportions since the introduction of the iPhone, and they seem to be in a hole out of which they cannot be dug.  Some analysts even predict the iPhone to totally make the BlackBerry an after thought in the world of SmartPhones. 

With that in mind, RIM may be hedging their bets in terms of an BlackBerry fallout.  A recent company memo called for applicants for a special team, and although the exact memo is nowhere to be found, an unidentified RIM employee did leak the following to Electronista. 

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Apple has a goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. RIM (Research in Motion), maker of the competing device, the Blackberry, just announced that its smart phone business has remained untouched, even with the addition of the iPhone in the market. Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi thinks that Apple target of selling a large quantity of iPhones is “optimistic.” With an average of 180 000 units a week in the fourth calendar quarter or 2007, the future looks bright.

Mr. Sacconaghi says that he company will sell 7.9 million units if they don’t make any major changes to their business strategy. If Apple does hit its target of 10 million phones, it will earn somewhere between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion in deferred subscriber revenues over two years. One thing I’d like to add is the fact that Apple does get paid each time someone subscribes with one of their carriers. We’ve written about various ways to jailbreak your iPhone, and with this only getting easier, Apple will earn less. Overall RIM still feels confident that the iPhone won’t effect their business.

Via [AppleInsider]