Google Inc (GOOG), Samsung, Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Smartphone Saturation

Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)

BlackBerry has one heck of a lot riding on the Z10, and the market’s first reaction seems to be fairly positive. Whether the company can leverage that into retaking the enormous market share lost over the last few years is an unknown and don’t let anyone tell you any different. Right now it’s more important to the success (survival?) of the firm to reestablish itself in the smartphone market and attain both stability and market confidence. If the company can do that you should expect to see real gains for the firm’s shares, so the time to get some BBRY is now if you have some risky money looking for a home for two years or so.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

The Windows phone is an enigma to me. Microsoft’s plan is trying to line itself up as the business play for phones, tablets and desktop PCs. The world has run on Windows for a long time, and the company would have to see that go away. So the new partnership with Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) is designed to compete not with Samsung and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) but with BlackBerry for the business market. I have trouble believing that Microsoft would abandon the lucrative consumer market to exclusively focus on the business sector, but it’s not like they haven’t been successful over the years. Microsoft is still the most mature large tech firm out there and the one that’s going to be most stable over the long haul.

Again, this is still a fractured industry, with different hardware and software makers as well as multiple carriers all competing for a market that’s reaching saturation. It might just come down to who does best marketing to South America and Africa that determines who comes out on top. In any case, I’d be very surprised if we still had as many major players in any part of the market in ten years as we have right now. There’s just not enough headspace in the public to make that stable over the long term.

The article Samsung, Apple and Smartphone Saturation originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Nate Wooley.

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