Surprise: Nokia moving up, BlackBerry dropping

Okay, so it’s not a huge surprise that BlackBerry is dropping, as we all know that the once virile brand has hit some rather hard times since smartphone users have by and large decided that touch screens are preferable to the brand’s signature keypads.

However, Nokia’s success has been more surprising than that, as they recently announced the release of six new Windows phones, as well as tablet. Furthermore, Microsoft has decided to buy not only nearly all of Nokia’s devices, but their license patents, as well.

BlackBerry (BB) certainly hasn’t had any ideas on the tablet front. While Microsoft (MSFT) has not exactly torn up the competition on the tablet side of things, they are at least grabbing a little bit of market share there instead of standing idly by and watching everyone else profit without a fight.

Of course, when it comes to BlackBerry, there’s a bit of a self-perpetuating cycle at work. As users pick other phones, app providers are less supportive of the company’s devices, which in turn makes users leave in even larger numbers, and so it goes.

Microsoft’s strategy hasn’t been to grab huge chunks of market share in either the tablet OR smartphone worlds, which is good because either proposition is not just iffy, but downright unlikely. They simply want to be in the game, making strides and bankrolling their efforts in those areas with their more profitable areas, just as they did with the Xbox before finding considerably greater success with the Xbox 360.