Today Nielsen let loose a few smartphone-related numbers from a recent study they conducted and things don’t look good for BlackBerry’s creator, Research in Motion. The results really aren’t shocking with just 42% of current BlackBerry owners looking to replace their current device with another BlackBerry, meanwhile 21% plan to pick up an Android device and 29% are hoping to switch to an iPhone when they get rid of their BlackBerry.

As a fan of BlackBerry I admit, I’m bummed to hear this, however, I’m not surprised one bit with the news. Research in Motion has done a piss-poor job making their platform enticing over the last several years. The truth is the last few OS upgrades have been drawn out, and relatively insignificant iterations of an already dated platform. While BlackBerry users are seeing trivial feature additions like threaded messaging, a bad attempt at a two-way Gmail sync solution, and a still unbearable browser; platforms like Android, iOS, webOS, and now even Windows Phone 7 are leapfrogging the once dominant BlackBerry.

I want to believe that BlackBerry 6 will fix all the problems and make the BlackBerry a competitive device again, but I’m just not sure it’s going to deliver all that. Sure, the browser looks decent (finally) and there are some built-in services like RSS, podcasts, and social feeds. But will it really hold a candle to current offerings? I’m afraid that it won’t. Application development is still absurdly difficult and unrewarding when compared to Android and especially iOS, and the iPhone definitely taught us how important a solid app ecosystem is to the success of a smartphone platform.

There are a lot of things that I like about BlackBerry-mostly the convenience and speed of messaging-but that’s not enough to keep most people from looking at alternatives that offer much more. Email used to be the BlackBerry’s one big dealmaker, but currently I think it falls behind both Android and the iPhone. I mean seriously, we still don’t have good HTML email viewing and two-way sync is a joke. Not only has RIM fallen behind with email but even integration with calendar, tasks, and contacts is non-existant unless you’re on a BES.

To sum this up I think RIM needs to either start really appealing to consumers or drop it entirely and just hammer on the best enterprise device available, because right now they’re just doing both poorly. If I can go ahead and contribute my vote to the survey, I’m with the 21% jumping to Android. I appreciate my BlackBerry, and I can’t wait for BlackBerry 6 to hit my 9650, but if given the choice right now I would buy an Android handset without a thought of buying another BlackBerry. I’m sorry RIM, but you did this to yourself.

[Via Nielsen]