GAMES AND GADGETS

A recent IDC report indicates that RIM still leads the smartphone sales with 44.5% of the market share while Apple followed with their iPhone with a 19.2% share in the market. Why is this so? It may be because more professionals still prefer to type on a solid QWERTY keyboard rather than a touchscreen phone for their emails.

Though the iPhone is sleek and sexy and would appeal to college students, its price tag may be a bit too much for some college student's budget whereas loaded yuppies would probably opt for Blackberry devices.

I have had my fair share of touch screen devices from HTC and typing your emails on them is just too much of a hassle compared with a device that has a QWERTY keyboard. That is why I opted to chuck my HTC P3600i over a Samsung i780.

HTC on the other hand has only 4.9% share in the smartphone market. Though most of HTC's products are smartphones, this could be due to the fact that HTC devices are mostly sold without contracts and thus command a higher price. It may also be due to the fact that professionals would rather opt to have a reliable Blackberry for their email needs rather than have a mini-laptop via Windows Mobile devices which is hardly reliable given the fact that most Windows Mobile Devices are prone to "hanging" or "freezing" (just like any other Windows product).

If Apple can come up with a device similar to the Samsung i780 or HTC TyTN II which have a tangible QWERTY keyboard or maybe partner with a third party to make a Bluetooth keyboard for the iPhone, then maybe they could further close the gap on RIM's market share.