Advanced E-commerce Research Systems, Inc.

Victoria, BC, Canada

January sales figures released by Avian Research revealed a decline in iPhone sales while Blackberry experienced an increase. Online trends in eBay could eventually reflect this offline trend with recent figures released from Terapeak on smart phone sales. Despite being currently outnumber by iPhones in the ecommerce market, the Blackberry is demonstrating astonishing growth that could turn the tables on its major competitors.

The percentage change of Blackberries over iPhone sales have been 75% since February 17th where the inflection point occurred. The newest Blackberry release of the Curve 8900 occurred right around that time. Coupled with the recent opening of the Blackberry application, the smart phone consumer has more model and price options than Apple currently provides.

This astonishing speed of eBay sales doesn’t show signs of slowing down as eBay users begin to look for less expensive alternative to the iPhone. Furthermore, the iPhone hasn’t had any new releases since the summer of 2008-will Apple pick up the pace?

Recently, blogger Paul Kedrosky commented on the sharp increase in the American savings rate. This level of national savings has not been seen since 1997. Given this information, it is easy to see how when compared to the more expensive iPhone, auctioned Blackberries present a more attractive offer to the budget conscious consumer.