Despite accepting an acquisition offer from its shareholder Fairfax Financial, the prospects of BlackBerry remain bleak as the hardware specifications and operating platforms of its smartphones are still lagging behind prevailing market trends, according to Digitimes Research.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's Device and Services unit will help the software vendor fulfill its goal of integrating its operating systems with hardware devices, and the planned integration is likely to push Windows Phone into a closed mobile operating system.
Sales of Apple's new models, the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, remain brisk even though Apple has maintained its policy of introducing new models with four-inch displays. But Apple is believed to still count on sales of old models in emerging markets since the price of the iPhone 5c, which is US$100 less than that of the iPhone 5s, is still too high for consumers in emerging markets, commented Digitimes Research.