The big competition for WP is... feature phones?

[cgk]

AllthingD had the following post

In the battle for smartphone supremacy, position is most often tracked in terms of operating system market share. In the U.S., for example, Google?s Android OS dominates, with a 52.2 percent share to the 33.4 percent share claimed by Apple?s iOS, according to the latest metrics from comScore. But what do those numbers look like when broken down by carrier?

That was followed by this commentary by n4bb

In a recent survey conducted by CIRP, they polled consumers who activated smartphones from June through August on which type of phone they used and from what carrier. What the survey revealed was the shocking number of activated feature phones, which is more than triple Windows Phone and BlackBerry share combined.

The operating system breakdown is essentially like this: 48% Android, 28% iPhone, 17% feature phone, 4% Blackberry, and 1% Windows Phone. With AT&T garnering the majority of BlackBerry activations.

?AT&T has clearly benefited from their early iPhone exclusivity,? CIRP co-founder Michael Levin told AllThingsD. ?iPhones still account for more than half of their activations. Android makes up about a third, followed by a very small number of BlackBerrys and basic phones. Verizon has a more diversified operating system base. Android phones account for about half of activations there, iPhones about a quarter. They also activate a surprising number of basic phones.?

If the statistics from the survey are at all accurate, should RIM first look to beating the feature phone sector and then move up the mobile space food chain?

Thoughts?

 

[independentvolume]

I'm surprised they aren't higher. Feature phones are a lot cheaper than smartphones. No data plans needed, ect..