Today is iPhone day. Thousands of Apple fans have queued up in eight countries across the world with hundreds of dollars in cash clenched in their hands, waiting for their turn at the register. Over 500,000 iPhones are expected to sell today. With all the iPhone hype, you might expect Apple's competitors to be quivering in their boots.

While other manufacturers might be worried by Apple's success, RIM isn't the slightest bit concerned. Their device shipments and activations are 20-30% ahead for June and July, and they continue to see rising profits as they capture an increasingly large segment of the mobile market.

The BlackBerry manufacturer sold over 7.8 million smartphones this quarter alone, including 3.8 million new BlackBerry owners. That is the crucial thing to look at here. The mobile market is entering a phase of contraction. Everyone has cell phones, and within the next couple of years everyone is going to have a smartphone. If manufacturers hope to stay in business, they are going to have to capture a loyal customer base now. No one has done a better job of this than RIM.

A lot of their earlier success was due to corporate contracts; BlackBerries are popular among businesses. But 80% of their new customers this quarter were independent consumers. That's clear proof that RIM products are attractive to a broad spectrum of customers. The upcoming releases of the Tour and Storm 2 are just going to further this trend, and give RIM a dynamite Q3.