The latest on smartphones (and other gadgets)

Check this graph from Business Insider. Tells a story doesn’t it. RIM has been steadily increasing its smartphone market share in the US, mainly by expanding into the consumer market. I have been seeing this strategy here in South Africa as well, with multi-coloured Blackberries heavily advertised on TV and print media, clearly targeting non-business users. The fixed-price surf-all-you-can subscription is a good strategy that is winning many new users.

The graph also shows how badly Microsoft needs Windows Phone 7. Apple has had a strong run but have leveled off recently, maybe because people are waiting for the next OS release. Google’s Android going the right direction also. I guess Symbian has yet to break into the US market, but what can be said about Palm? Or more importantly what can Palm do to reverse the trend? WebOS is excellent, but I think Palm needs better hardware, it needs a killer device. In the meantime it needs to push the Pre/Pixie through as many networks as possible, in as many countries as possible, it needs to spend aggressively on advertising, and of course it needs to open its app store to everyone, not just to US users.

I thought I saw Mark Benford, played by Joseph Fiennes, use a Palm Pre in this week’s episode of Flashforward. Couldn’t be sure as the phone was not displayed prominently enough. Anyone else see it?