For the past few years, BlackBerry, a phone and an Email device could be found clipped to the belts of high-powered professionals. However, it seems that the same device is not working for the company anymore, with iPhone picking up bigger market share. 

Today, the first major counterattack at the iPhone has being launched by Research in Motion Ltd. Dubbed as the BlackBerry Storm. It is basically a touch screen device that permits users to take pictures, play movies and music and visit their Facebook and MySpace pages with ease. Moreover, the users can also take its help to find the path when they are lost in their cars. 

In the beginning of this year, the company also launched its first-ever mainstream TV ad campaign and is partnering with Verizon Wireless with the motive to widen a marketing blitz that has touted the Storm on TV and in newspapers. 

Barry Richards, a senior analyst at Paradigm Capital, who also owns RIM shares, said, “It's only in the last year that they've made a real concerted effort to branch into consumers.”

The technology lovers are into smartphones now-a-days, which are basically hand-held computers that allow them to make calls, surf the Web, check e-mail and maybe even watch TV, and the makers of BlackBerry are trying to gain market share. According to Neilson Mobile, “Smartphones account for 12.6% of handsets in use in the U.S. market but 19% of recently acquired phones.”

Mark Guibert, RIM's vice president of corporate marketing, said, “The smartphone market has plenty of room to grow, and we are well-positioned to benefit from our continued focus on innovation, customer value and partnerships.”

RIM too faces tough competition from Apple Inc.'s iPhone, whose sales have surprised analysts since its launch in June 2007. “The Apple gadget was the top-selling phone in the third quarter, followed by Motorola's RAZR and the Blackberry Curve,” according to the NPD Group. 

Richards of Paradigm Capital reported, “That's not good news for all carriers including Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp., which collectively lost 2 million subscribers in one quarter to AT&T, the exclusive provider of the iPhone.”