Market share banana skin for BlackBerry

Though the BlackBerry arguably made mobile email as much an exec must-have as a blue sports jacket and chinos, maker RIM's market share has taken a tumble nonetheless.

Research from Strategy Analytics has discovered that during the first half of the year, RIM's market share fell by five per cent, leaving the mobile email company with 59 per cent of the world's mobilised inboxes.

Despite the drop, RIM still dominated the market. It's trailed by a series of smaller players including Good, Nokia-owned Intellisync, Microsoft and Seven with between seven and nine per cent market share each.

The market as a whole is also growing, however, and analysts predict it will double in size over the course of this year.

Though RIM's the market leader, it's not necessarily the one that should be watching its back, according to Strategy Analytics. Intellisync, Seven and Visto could see their 'carrier white label' services - where mobile operators resell mobile email under their own brand, such as Vodafone and Visto in the UK - threatened in the upcoming years by the growth of open mobile email standards.

It's also predicted that the mobile email ARPU (average revenue per user) will halve to $15 within the next three years.