Research in Motion captured more than 50% of the US smartphone market in the second quarter, up sharply from first-quarter levels, according to figures released IDC.

Apple and Palm both lost share in the second three months of the year.

The IDC numbers show that Canada-based RIM, maker of the wildly popular BlackBerry wireless device, held 53.6% of the US market for smartphones in the second quarter, up from 44.5% in the first quarter.

According to Ryan Reith, a senior research analyst at IDC, RIM's strong market position was driven in large part by the recent release of two new BlackBerry devices, the Curve and the Pearl, for the Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless networks. Sprint and Verizon are the two leading operators of US wireless networks that rely on CDMA technology.

Curve was launched with both networks in the second quarter of this year, while Pearl was launched with the two networks in the fourth quarter of last year.

RIM launched the Pearl with AT&T Wireless and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile, which both rely on GSM technology, in late 2006. It launched the Curve on those networks in mid-2007.

IDC's numbers show that Apple's share of the US smartphone market tumble to 7.4% in the second quarter, from 19.2% in the first quarter, as consumers waited for the July release of the iPhone 3G to upgrade their devices.
The iPhone 3G sales, Reith said, should show up in the third quarter for Apple.

Palm, meanwhile, saw its market share fell to 10.8% in the second quarter, from 13.4% in the first quarter. Reith said Palm faced a particularly tough quarterly comparison since it launched its new Centro device on the Sprint network at an introductory price of $99 in the first quarter.

Source:AP News