Has BlackBerry Subscriber Base Gone into Decline?

A decade after Research In Motion Ltd. introduced its first smartphone, the tribe of BlackBerry users has stopped growing stopped growing. The bigger question is whether something worse than that has happened over the last quarter, namely an actual decline in the user base. 

Some would point that although it has faced huge challenges, Research in Motion has until recently been able to show sales growth, albeit at rates that do not match those of Apple iOS, Samsung or other Android devices.

In August, 2011 RIM had 70 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide, and in June 2012 reported 78 million users globally. 

Some analysts now believe the total number of BlackBerry users is now declining, or about to start declining. This contrasts with first weekend sales of the new Apple iPhone 5 of perhaps five million units. And some analysts appear to be disappointed at that sales level, which is more than for the similar first weekend of any other version of the iPhone, but less than some had anticipated based on pre-order activity.