BlackBerry is quickly losing investor confidence, but it's also losing the support of another important segment: its developers for the BlackBerry operating system.
Baird Equity Research's recent developer survey found that when asked about their perception of RIM, 200 developers rated RIM at 3.8 out of 10, down from 4.6 the previous quarter. Their outlook for its current OS, BlackBerry 7, declined to 2.8 from 3.8, putting it a notch above HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ)'s disemboweled webOS.
What's more, 31 percent of the developers told Baird that they were no longer building for BlackBerry 10, the OS the company is betting its business on. That's down from 34 percent in the first quarter, suggesting most have already jumped ship. (See RIM CEO 'Not Satisfied' but Confident in BB10 and RIM CEO Denies BlackBerry Death Spiral.)
Android wins European status: Android is the OS on board at least half of all smartphones sold in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Australia, according to stats from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. The firm says that as of June, Android grabbed 49.6 percent in Italy to 84.1 percent in Spain, as consumers traded up from feature phones but looked to stay under the €50 range.
Android shares the U.S. with Apple: Android's growth is going strong in the U.S., too. Kantar says the OS fell 6.8 percentage points over last year, but new numbers from The Nielsen Co. suggest Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)'s OS still captured 51.8 percent of the market last month, with Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s iOS trailing at 34.3 percent. BlackBerry clung on to 8.1 percent of the market, and the remaining OSs made up the last 5.9 percent.
Verizon gets in the game:Verizon Wireless is adding a subscription gaming service to the Android smartphones and tablets it offers. Dubbed GameTanium, the $5.99-per-month, ad-free service gives gamers unlimited access to more than 100 Android-optimized games.
RIM's Developer lead blogs a rebuttal to Baird's report: http://devblog.blackberry.com/2012/07/bleeding-developers-far-from-it/