Over the past year or so, we’ve all witnessed the rapid growth of the Android platform and steady progression of the iPhone user base.  Our RSS feeds are constantly crammed full of Android, iPhone, webOS, and Windows Phone 7 news, leaving BlackBerry struggling to make it to the headlines.  Everyone knows that RIM is a “sleeping giant" (according to Myxer) and that they lead in smartphone marketshare in the United States, but the lack of news regularly places them on the back burner.

Myxer, a provider of multimedia download content and mobile entertainment, is here to remind us of how important they are.  They have released their monthly report for March, revealing some enlightening numbers about the BlackBerry platform and its users.  Myxer has a user base of roughly 33 million, which is built of users of all major mobile platforms (Windows Mobile, webOS, PalmOS, Symbian, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry).  Their reports unveil that the majority of their users are BlackBerry users, and those users, on average, download more content than the users of other platforms.  Mixer’s BoomBox Report dives deeper into specific BlackBerry devices and download content along with some other demographics.

Here are some of the returns provided in the report:

• RIM continues to far outpace Windows, Palm, webOS, Android, iPhone and Symbian based on mobile visits, growing from a 58% market share in March 2009 to a 63% share in March 2010.
• Not only does BlackBerry have the largest percentage of smartphone users in the US, but BlackBerry users are also the most active when it comes to downloading content, with BlackBerry accounting for 72% of the 22 million downloads by smartphones on Myxer in March 2010. 
• When comparing the number of registered BlackBerry users on Myxer to the combined total of iPhone/Android users throughout the United States Blackberry has more users in 44 states.
• The four states controlled by iPhone/Android include: Alaska, Hawaii, Lousiana, and Kentucky.
• The BlackBerry Curve 8330 is the most active BlackBerry handset on Myxer, accounting for 4.8 million downloads in March 2010.
• Android came in at 14% and Windows Mobile at 7% of the total smartphone downloads in March.

This report goes to show that BlackBerry maintains a very strong presence on the back end of things, but if reports are true, RIM is going to have a tough battle to fight when users renew their wireless contracts.  If they want to keep their place at the top, I believe it’s time for RIM to take the plunge and overhaul their OS. (Since we know they’re in the process, we’ll just say they need to speed up production.)

To download the full report, click here.  What do you think of these reports?  Sound off in the comments!