It was hard to ignore the bad news affecting RIM in recent weeks. One would expect that prolonged outages coupled with the much publicized launch of the iPhone 4S would have a negative impact on sales of Blackberry devices. The question is whether operators noticed any change in adoption and retention rates for customers with Blackberry devices.

Mobile operators from different countries use SevenFlow to monitor device-related KPIs such as Attraction and Loyalty. Attraction is measured as the difference between the number of people who adopt devices from a specific manufacturer and those who abandon the manufacturer. Loyalty reflects the number of people who keep the same device manufacturer when they migrate to a new device.

During the month of October (with variables depending on geographical areas), the Attraction index for Blackberry devices lost between 19% and 35% of its value while the Loyalty index lost between 6% and 14%. Apple seemed to be the main beneficiary of these events: it saw its Attraction index jump by as much as 50% in some countries.

What do you think – how should device portfolio managers react in light of such results? Do you think this drop is a temporary setback or the sign of a more permanent change in market conditions? Share your thoughts in our comments section.