With all of the buzz that Apple is generating with its iPhone 4 and iOS platform, BlackBerry is finally making moves to step up its game with the launch of BlackBerry OS 6.0.

BlackBerry OS 6.0 will power smartphones with iPhone-like features and functionality and is an obvious move on the part of Research In Motion to better compete with Apple's iPhone 4 and iOS. The touchscreen smartphone that RIM is currently testing has a slide-out keyboard a la the Motorola Droid, indicating that the handset manufacturer is emulating more than one of its competitors.

?At the end of the day, Apple is making a lot of money in this space and pushing everybody to step up their game,? said Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at Yankee Group, Boston. ?In the last few months, Apple just created a multimillion market where no one thought there was one, and they are getting hammered with consumers that want to do business with them [preordering an iPhone 4 online] to the tune of $44 million.

?If you count $200 for the phone and another $2,400 for service for the year, do the math?$44 million worth of people trying to beat down Apple?s door,? he said. ?That fact clearly demonstrates that they are easy to use?this is about appealing to every day consumers.?

Worldwide, RIM?s operating system is second only to Nokia?s Symbian?Gartner found that BlackBerry had a 19.4 percent global market share in the first quarter of this year, only slightly less than its market share from the first quarter of 2009.

Despite major growth by the iPhone OS (15.4 percent global market share in the first quarter of this year) and Google?s Android (9.6 percent), RIM still leads both worldwide, and BlackBerry is still the No. 1 smartphone OS in North America?for the time being.

Rumors persist that RIM will compete with Apple on another front by launching a tablet based on the BlackBerry OS 6.0 to cut into the iPad?s market share.

?RIM has a devoted base?that?s the good news,? Mr. Howe said. ?If you look at smartphone market share, they?re the leader in the North America?they?re still ahead of Apple, so it?s their game to lose.

?They have to provide something compelling, an offering for existing BlackBerry owners to step up to, and that?s what they?re trying to do with BlackBerry OS 6.0,? he said. ?It is a marketing war, there?s no question.?

Vulnerable market leader?
Yankee Group data from this year indicates that RIM still leads Apple in North America with a 28 percent market share compared to Apple's 15 percent.

However, interest in BlackBerry among current smartphone owners is waning, according to Yankee Group.

Among respondents to a Yankee Group survey who own a smartphone, 33 percent indicated that their next purchase would be an Apple product, while only 30 percent sided with BlackBerry.

?BlackBerry has succeeded largely because of its support among IT managers,? said Dmitriy Molchanov, analyst at Yankee Group. ?The BlackBerry BES server is unparalleled in the security it offers enterprises.

?Recently, however, IT managers have noted that employees want to bring their own smartphones into the enterprise,? he said. ?Hence, Blackberry has stepped up its consumer efforts to win them over,? he said.

RIM?s previous efforts at the touchscreen user interface?the two BlackBerry Storms?have not been the iPhone-killers the company had hoped they would be. Will BlackBerry OS 6.0 be a different story?

The new OS will feature a customizable homescreen and a revamped media player, and it will power both trackpad and touchscreen devices.

To compete with the iPhone and Android, RIM must attract more application developers to its platform and improve BlackBerry?s Internet browsing experience.

?The big changes we'll see in OS 6.0 aren't just in the touchscreen,? Mr. Molchanov said. ?Both IT managers and consumers have really been demanding improvements in the BlackBerry browsing experience and in the app store [BlackBerry App World].

?Those are the two biggest changes you'll see,? he said. ?BlackBerry is really aiming to couple their expertise in security with a more consumer-centric device.?

Apple is certainly forcing handset manufacturers to spend far more time thinking about user experience.

?In RIM's case, Apple is forcing RIM to think about corporate workers as both consumers and employees,? Mr. Molchanov said.

Each smartphone manufacturer is focusing its marketing on a different piece of the pie.

Apple and Android are focusing on applications. Apple in particular has been marketing the iPhone and iPod Touch as gaming devices in recent months.

BlackBerry and Palm, on the other hand, want to brand their devices as "communications devices" that connect consumers to all of their friends.

?In the long term, RIM's efforts will certainly pay off,? Mr. Molchanov said.

BlackBerry courting consumers
While the continued stream of Android devices and the impending release of iPhone 4 will take their toll, NPD data also confirms BlackBerry?s No. 1 status in North America.

?RIM has consistently had the highest market share in terms of units sold in the U.S. since we began tracking the market in 2005,? said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at the NPD Group, Port Washington, NY.

?We?ve certainly seen strong growth from both Android and iPhone since their introductions,? he said.

In fact, in the first quarter of this year, NPD found that Android handsets outsold the iPhone at retail.

?Of course, both BlackBerry and Android devices are sold on multiple carriers, which certainly helps drive volume,? Mr. Rubin said. ?In the U.S. market, carriers have a lot of power to affect handset pricing and data plan pricing.?

According to NPD, the Android platform moved past iPhone into the No. 2 slot in first quarter of 2010. However, the launch of the iPhone 4 may push past Apple past Android, if only temporarily.

?Historically Apple has been able to take subscribers away from other carriers with the launch of new iPhones,? Mr. Rubin said.

RIM, along with Apple, saw its market share drop in the fourth quarter of 2009 as Verizon was heavily promoting the Motorola Droid, which runs on the Android OS.

However, RIM?s market share remained relatively intact from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of this year, even though Android?s share grew, according to NPD.

RIM has clearly taken notice of the success of the iPhone and Android devices, and is looking to broaden its portfolio of smartphones with the launch of BlackBerry OS 6.0.

?Clearly RIM is seeking to modernize the platform to take advantage of new hardware and UI conventions that have become much more popular since the advent of the iPhone,? Mr. Rubin said. ?RIM is pursuing a variety of form factors, because different form factors appeal to different customers.

?It also provides a hedge against shifting tides in the consumer handset marketplace, as different mechanisms enjoy different levels of popularity over time,? he said. ?Competition continues to inspire companies to innovate?that?s a truism.?

RIM is asking itself: How do we keep our enterprise customers happy while courting consumers?

BlackBerry Messenger, an instant messaging platform for BlackBerry users, is an example of a feature that is popular among consumers, a segment that RIM must impress to protect its slim market share lead.

?The BlackBerry brand continues to have very strong acceptance in enterprise, even though a high percentage of RIM?s sales are to consumers,? Mr. Rubin said. ?For consumers looking to have a strong full-featured email experience and who want the physical characteristics of a BlackBerry device, it is still a strong choice.

?The challenge for OS 6.0 is to take the new UI while preserving what BlackBerry is known for?security, reliability, long battery life, multitasking and the efficiency of the [QWERTY keypad] UI,? he said.

?Those are challenging things to balance.?