RIM Hits 10 percent U.S. Market Share Record

NEW YORK (Reuters) – For the first time Research In Motion Ltd’s (RIM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)BlackBerry cornered 10 percent of U.S. cell phone sales in the secondquarter in a market that grew more than 5 percent despite economicconcerns, Strategy Analytics said on Monday.

The research firm said Canada’s RIM was seeing huge success withboth consumer and enterprise handsets in the United states where totalmobile phone shipments rose 5.3 percent to 41.9 million units from 39.8million in the second quarter of 2007.

Also in the second quarter Motorola Inc (MOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) managed to keep the lead in its home market.

While some analysts have been expecting Motorola to be overtaken byrivals even in its strongest market the phone maker hadbetter-than-expected U.S. sales in the quarter, giving it 25.8 percentof the U.S. market compared with its global share of less than 10percent.

Motorola barely squeaked ahead of LG Electronics (066570.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to keep its global No. 3 ranking in the second quarter. It has been losing market share to rivals such as Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for well over a year amid criticism of its handset line-up and a lack of phones with high-speed Web links.

"Motorola is not yet out of the woods, but these are encouraging,early signs of stabilization," said Strategy Analytics analyst NeilMawston, citing the company’s strong distribution network and its U.S.carrier relationships.

Strategy Analytics said LG took second place in the United Statesfor the first time in almost two years, due partly to sales of phoneswith high-speed Web links by the country’s No. 1 wireless serviceAT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

(Reporting by Sinead Carew, editing by Richard Chang)