Wav Group

According to a study released recently by ChangeWave Research (no relationship to WAV Group), as the Palm looses market share, Blackberry and iPhones are experiencing growth.  Palm has long enjoyed a leadership position in real estate due to integration with the GE Supra product, but the winds of change are blowing.

The ChangeWave study says the battle for leadership in smartphones today is between iPhone and Blackberry as Palm takes a backseat..

The BlackBerry line of products from RIM maintain a leadership position with 42 percent of consumer smartphone user market share - Palm is down to 16%

Palm's market share has dropped in the past seven consecutive consumer user surveys.

"Future reports will likely show some changes later in the year, as one in three surveyed plan to buy an iPhone in the next three months -- a 12-point jump since the January survey. ChangeWave attributes the iPhone surge to the recently announced iPhone Software Development Kit and the new 2.0 OS."

"We won't see dramatic changes right away, and the planned iPhone purchases don't necessarily bode negative for RIM. It indicates that the iPhone will continue rising," Paul Carton, research director, ChangeWave Research, told InternetNews.com.

RIM should remain confident with their dominance in the business sector. A previous ChangeWave survey reported that the vendor accounts for 73 percent of corporate purchases.

iPhone has attained the leadership position in user satisfaction - users gave it a 79 percent "very satisfied" rating, while RIM got 54 percent, and Palm just 22 percent.

"Customer satisfaction is the gold standard and strong indicator of future growth," Carton said.

"The story here is that this is a two-way race between RIM and Apple in the consumer market and it's the story of Palm's collapse," Carton said.

http://waves.wavgroup.com/002B28