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Every once in a while a media outlet comes up with reasons why the iPhone will surpass BlackBerry in cell phone market share. The latest is Forbes magazine, though the analysis comes from company called Trefis. They break down the trends of each company, and have determined that the iPhone will overtake BlackBerry in early 2011. As in, a year from now. The main evidence is that Apple has grown a bit faster, going from .3 percent market share in 2007 to 2 percent in 2009, while RIM went from 1 to 3 in that period. Further, they expect RIm to have an 8 percent cell phone market share by 2016, with Apple ahead of them at 11 percent.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 3/8/2010…

It seems that at every year at this time we’re anxiously awaiting a few new BlackBerry devices. Last year it was the Curve 8900, though by this point it was already released, and the Tour, which was still a ways off. This year the Pearl 9100 is like the Curve, and I suppose the 9650 is like the Tour. Ah, but it seems RIM is doing us one better. This week we’ve seen pictures of a new kind of BlackBerry. A touchscreen with a slide-out, portrait keyboard, the device could be the next in the Bold or the Storm lines. Either way, it’s sure to get BlackBerry geeks talking.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 3/1/2010…

It seems like we’re seeing new BlackBerry devices released more frequently than ever. RIM has set a number of model lines — the Bold, the Curve, the Pearl, the Storm — and has been pumping out more and more, for both CDMA and GSM networks. Eventually, once they hit a certain pace they have to start phasing out the old models. The Curve might be the top-selling smartphone in America, but that’s not going to last forever. Newer devices will eventually catch it on the list, perhaps as soon as this quarter. This week, we learn that Verizon might be retiring a few of its devices to make room for the new.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 2/22/2009…

This week the wireless industry got together in Barcelona for the annual Mobile World Congress. I’m sure plenty goes on at this event, as we’ve seen plenty of dispatches from our favorite correspondents. A number of them relate to BlackBerry, which means we’ve got a pretty full News From The Wire this week. In fact, the lead item is a pretty big deal if you run or work for a small- to mid-sized business.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 2/15/2010…

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. This week IDC Mobile Devices and Technology Trends released their list of top-selling smartphones in the U.S. And, for what seems like 20 quarters in a row, the BlackBerry Curve came out on top. This time around, though, a few more questions surround the rankings, including one, posed by Kevin at CrackBerry, that I hadn’t thought of before. My main question pertains to the classification. We know that Curve includes the 83xx series, but what about the 85xx? Was that included in the survey? Or were people taking advantage of discounted older generation Curves?

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 2/8/2010…

Like the rest of you, I love my BlackBerry. It does the one thing I bought for, which is to deliver my email in an intuitive manner. All the other features are nice, and I use them, but they’re not central to my device usage. I do wonder, however, whether my opinion on that would change if some of these additional features worked better — more intuitively, with a better interface. Would I use my BlackBerry more fully? If a recent rumor pans out, I might find out in the near future.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 2/1/2009…

When we changed formats over a year ago and stopped doing daily news in favor of this weekly feature, I fancied it like a network news program. We’d run down all the things relevant to our local niche. One of my favorite parts about network news — well, my only favorite part, since I don’t watch the actual programs — is the teaser they play in the hours before. “Is your breakfast cereal making your children dumber? Story at 11.” This week we can see such a teaser: “Will the BlackBerry be banned in America? Story after the jump.”

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 1/25/2009…

In last week’s edition of News From The Wire we saw the first photos of the BlackBerry Curve 8910. After many of us wondered what place it had among the current BlackBerry lineup, a few commentators noted that the device resembles the BlackBerry Atlas, a device discovered around September and reportedly headed for Asian markets. That made sense, and I thought that would be the end of it. But early this week the device passed through the FCC. Since the US government likely isn’t in the business of approving devices set for release in Asian markets, it appears that the 8910 will, indeed, hit North America.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 1/18/2009…

In last week’s News From The Wire we focused on the BlackBerry Pearl 9100. That’s one of two BlackBerry models slated for an early 2010 release, and since we haven’t seen a Pearl release since 2007 it’s probably the more exciting of the two. The other device, the Tour 2, a/k/a the Essex, will also hit shelves soon. I’ve expressed my dissatisfaction with a release so soon after the original Tour, but that doesn’t make it any less noteworthy. So what did we learn about the Tour 2 this week?

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 1/11/10…

Happy New Year, everyone. Because of extenuating circumstances — i.e., the holidays — we’ve missed News From The Wire for the past few weeks. Instead, we ran with the news on the BBGeekcast. Now that we’re back to normal, full weeks, we’re also back with the news in text form. It’s CES week, so you know there are a few tidbits worth noting in the BlackBerry world. And, as is our bread and butter, we’ve heard a new device’s release is imminent.

Read the rest of BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 1/4/2009…