WASHINGTON: BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, losing ground rapidly in the smartphone wars, needs to take bold steps to revive its fortunes and compete with iPhones and Android devices overwhelming the market, analysts say.

Analysts say RIM, which pioneered the smartphone, risks falling further behind the competition, and that the Canadian firm may slip behind Microsoft, which is making a new effort with Nokia to develop Windows-powered devices. RIM warned Tuesday it could report a loss in the current quarter and said it had hired investment firms to study its strategic options.

JP Morgan Securities and RBC Capital Markets were retained to advise the company in a “strategic review,” which could mean a sale, alliance or other reorganization of the business.

A survey by the research firm IDC showed smartphones powered by Google's Android software accounted for 59 per cent of the global market in the first quarter of 2012, with 23 per cent for Apple's iPhones.

That left just 6.4 per cent for BlackBerry, compared with 13.6 per cent a year ago. In the US market, only around five per cent of smartphone buyers opted for BlackBerry in the past three months, according to a Nielsen survey.

Roberta Cozza, an analyst with Gartner, said RIM risks becoming a “niche” player in the market, especially with some companies adopting a “bring your own” smartphone policy.

“Our outlook is that 2012 will be very tough for RIM,” Cozza said.

Cozza said that the introduction of the new BlackBerry 10 platform later this year, which is aimed at confronting Apple and Android, may do little to help the company.

“Their future relies on the execution of the BlackBerry 10 platform and, unfortunately, the outlook we have is not very positive,” she said.

Even if the new platform is successful, she said the introduction may be overshadowed by the expected launch of a new iPhone, as well as new Android offerings from Samsung and others, and an aggressive move by Microsoft.

“So this (BlackBerry) will be just another device, amid a lot of noise from other big players,” Cozza said.

BlackBerry has traditionally been strong in the government sector, and it got a boost in early May from a big order from the US Defence Department, which cited its strong security features.

But the US Transportation Security Administration has unveiled plans to buy 1,000 iPhones, and Apple and Android devices are slowly gaining ground in the congressional market that had been dominated by RIM.—AFP