Since the emergence of Apple’s iPhone, the market landscape has changed a lot. Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion (RIM) dominated the smartphone market when it introduced BlackBerry in 1999. The latest ranking generated by market research firm Gartner (News - Alert) places RIM in the fourth position behind Nokia, Google and Apple.

In the first quarter of 2011, RIM accounted for 12.9 percent share of the global market based on operating systems. Google's Android (News - Alert), Nokia's Symbian and Apple's iOS were the frontrunners, according to Gartner.

At this week’s CommunicAsia (News - Alert) show in Singapore, RIM displayed the Playbook, its answer to Apple's iconic iPad. According to Yahoo! News report, Playbook, which flaunts a 7-inch (17.8-centimeter) touchscreen, was released in April but its acceptance in the North American market has been mixed. As per the Yahoo! News report, RIM claims to have shipped about 500,000 Playbooks in the first three months. And is now starting sales in Asia.

The BlackBerry (News - Alert) maker is now eyeing Asian markets for growth. It is especially hoping to make good gains in Indonesia and other populous countries in Asia, while it faces intensifying competition worldwide from rivals like the iPhone, wrote Yahoo! News.

“We are in a great spot. When I think about the (Asian) markets, I have a big smile on my face,” RIM's regional managing director Gregory Wade told Singapore’s AFP at the expo, wrote Yahoo! News. According to Wade, BlackBerry currently leads the smartphone market in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

IDC (News - Alert), another market watcher, estimates that RIM shipped 1.5 million BlackBerry devices to Asia in the first quarter. Since 2004, it has sold at least 8.5 million units in the region, according to IDC. IDC research shows that Asia accounted for 11 percent of RIM's global shipments in the first quarter of 2011, compared to eight percent for all of 2010.

IDC sees a huge adoption trend underway in Asian countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand where the combined population is about 400 million. Wade said Indonesians have a particular fondness for BlackBerry's instant-messaging function, which spares them from texting charges.

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