While Research In Motion (RIM) has been slipping, Apple has been gaining, and now Cupertino has overtaken the BlackBerry maker in its home country of Canada.
Bloomberg is reporting based on data from IDC that RIM shipped 2.08 million BlackBerrys in Canada last year. Apple, by comparison, shipped 2.85 million iPhones, Bloomberg said.
Apple has been closing in on RIM for the past couple of years, but this is the first time it has outsold the Ontario-based company. In 2010, BlackBerry dominated the iPhone by half a million, and in 2008, RIM sold about five BlackBerrys for every iPhone Apple sold in Canada, Bloomberg noted.
However, it's worth pointing out, that as an aggregate, Android is leading both RIM and Apple, though Google's OS is spread out across many device makers.
The last year has been rough for RIM. In January, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stepped down as co-CEOs after leading the company together for two decades. Former chief operating officer of product engineering Thorsten Heins stepped in as RIM's new president and CEO.
Besides the leadership changes, it's also had a uphill battle in getting its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet off the ground. RIM's launch of the tablet last April was less than successful. Critics complained that the devices lacked native email and contacts apps, among other key features. Just a month later RIM recalled 1,000 PlayBooks due to a software glitch, Sprint canceled the PlayBook 4G, and then the price drops started.
RIM took another hit in October when it suffered the worst BlackBerry outage in its history.
RIM finally debuted BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 last month, but it might be too late to salvage PlayBook sales.
Heins has attributed the company's recent troubles to "growing pains." However, losing its lead on its home turf presents even more challenges for RIM. And Apple is riding on some serious momentum right now, especially considering its new iPad has already sold at least 3 million units since hitting stores just a week ago.
Bloomberg said RIM's sales in Canada, which comprise 7 percent of its revenue, dropped 23 percent in the third quarter (year over year), and in the U.S., they took a 45 percent dip. Worldwide, revenue slipped by 5.9 percent.