RIM has announced that they have sold the 50 millionth BlackBerry devices on Thursday. It took RIM just over 10 years to reach the mark. Ten years back, RIM started selling pagers with “push” email functionality and basic data service. The company entered the smartphone market when they introduced BlackBerry 5000 series devices and since than there sales have continued to rise. For past two years, BlackBerry has seen an explosive growth in both North American region and around the world with introduction of devices like Curve, Pearl and Storm.
The 50 million is a big number, but compared to recent growth in smartphone market it’s nothing. Nokia sold more than 50 million Smartphone last year alone, similarly, Apple sold around 14 million iPhones in 2008 and in just 18 months since its release in June 2007, Apple has sold over 17 million iPhones. If you consider these numbers it would take Apple about 3-4 years to reach 50 million mark and that too with just one iPhone model. On the other hand, Nokia has 15 different smartphone models and it crosses the 50 million mark every 10-12 months. But still BlackBerry is second to Nokia in smartphone market and that’s an achievement, if you consider the competition.