Smartphone maker Research In Motion (RIM) has seen its shares drop by 20 per cent, taking it to the lowest level in almost five years, as the consumers shift their attention to sleeker phones from competitors like Apple.

According to May report by Nielson, Google’s Android topped the U.S. smartphone market with a share of 36 per cent, followed by Apple's iOS operating system with a 26 per cent and RIM’s Blackberry with 23 per cent share.

With the launch of the new PlayBook, RIM shipped 500,000 of the tablet PCs last quarter which is way less than 3.27 million iPads, that Apple shipped in first quarter.

Analysts say, If they're going to survive, they're going to have to make some radical changes, blaming the sluggish product introduction.

The Blackberry Bold 9900, which was supposed to be launched this summer is pushed back and even the 4G version of the company's PlayBook tablet will not be launched this summer.

Blackberry just has 26,000 apps compared to Apple's 350,000.

They offer things that are tremendously valuable to that corporate IT manager, but it's not a powerful message to the consumer market.They have to change their internal thinking because if they're only focused on that corporate IT manager, they don't have a good understanding of what the end user needs. said Charles Golvin, a principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd, RIM’s sixth-largest shareholder has sold half its RIM shares, reported Bloomberg. They are resting on their laurels, said the firm's chairman. Steve Jobs is a much better marketer than RIM.

Tablet pc Smartphone Electronics Apple