According to a ChangeWave survey, Apple and Research in Motion will continue to battle it out for the lead in the smart phone market. And while Apple seemed to the be the winner, that is only the case in the short-term. The “short-term” involves anticipated cell phone purchases within 90 days (the survey was conducted two weeks before the iPhone 3G was released). But when you factor in current smart phone owners and the corporate market, RIM comes out on top. 

Interestingly enough, though RIM is still in the lead–and projected to stay that way–they are taking the iPhone threat seriously, as they should. Their plan of attack? The already announced Blackberry Bold and two forthcoming releases, the Thunder and Kickstart. 

It’s unlikely that RIM will bring down the iPhone or vice versa, but what this knock-down, drag-out fight could do is push the smaller competitors out of the market like Palm, Motorola and Samsung. 

[via ChangeWave Hotwire Blog]