When Apple'siPhonewas first introduced in 2007, it generated substantial media attention, with numerous media outlets calling it a "BlackBerry killer". While BlackBerry sales continued to grow, the newer iPhone grew at a faster rate and the 87 percent drop in BlackBerry's stock price between 2010 and 2013 is primarily attributed to the performance of the iPhone handset. The first three models of the iPhone (introduced in 2007) generally lagged behind the BlackBerry in sales, as RIM had major advantages in carrier and enterprise support; however, Apple continued gaining market share. In October 2008, Apple briefly passed RIM in quarterly sales when they announced they had sold 6.9 million iPhones to the 6.1 million sold by RIM, comparing partially overlapping quarters between the companies. Though Apple's iPhone sales declined to 4.3 million in the subsequent quarterand RIM's increased to 7.8 million, for some investors this indicated a sign of weakness. Apple's iPhone began to sell more phones quarterly than the BlackBerry in 2010, brought on by the release of theiPhone 4. In the United States, the BlackBerry hit its peak in September 2010, when almost 22 million users were using a BlackBerry. BlackBerry then began to decline in use in the United States, with Apple's installed base in the United States finally passing BlackBerry in April 2011. Sales
of the iPhone continued to accelerate, as did the Smartphone market, while the BlackBerry began to lose users continuously in the United States. Google's Android mobile operating system, running on hardware by a range of manufacturers includingSony,Motorola,HTC,Samsung,LGand many others ramped up the competition for BlackBerry. In January 2010, barely 3 million (7.1%) of the 42.7 million Smartphones in use at the time in the United States were running Android, compared to 18 million BlackBerry devices (43%). By February 2016, only 1.59 million (0.8%) of the 198.9 million smartphone users in the United States were running BlackBerry compared to 104.82 million (52.7%) running Android. While RIM's secure encrypted network was attractive to corporate customers, their handsets were sometimes considered less attractive to consumers than iPhone and Android smartphones. Developers often developed consumer applications for those platforms and not the BlackBerry. The company also faced criticism that its hardware and operating system were outdated and unappealing compared to the competition and that the browsing capabilities were poorer. On September 27, 2010, RIM announced the long-rumouredBlackBerry PlayBooktablet, the first product running on the new QNX platform known asBlackBerry Tablet OS. The PlayBook was criticized for being rushed to market in an incomplete state and sold poorly. Following the shipments of 900,000 tablets during its first three quarters on market, slow sales and inventory pileups prompted the company to reduce prices and to write down the inventory value.
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