BlackBerry owns a commanding 42% share of US smartphone subscribers (and a 9% share of the total subscriber population), according to July data from comScore, and globally, BlackBerry shipments rose 45% from Q1 2009 to Q1 2010. So why has the introduction of its newest smartphone, the Torch, and version 6 of its proprietary operating system been described as a make-or-break moment for BlackBerry?

First off, Research In Motion (RIM) may hold the lead among US smartphone subscribers, but it certainly isn’t gaining share. At best, RIM is managing to tread water while other platforms, most notably Android, surge ahead. Globally, Canalys projects 169% year-over-year growth in Android smartphone shipments in 2010 and 100% year-over-year growth in total market share. RIM, by contrast, is forecast to lose six points of market share.

Second, and perhaps more worrisome for RIM, is BlackBerry users’ lack of loyalty to the platform. In findings released this week, Nielsen revealed that only 42% of current BlackBerry owners would opt for another BlackBerry as their next smartphone, while 29% want an iPhone and 21% have their eyes on an Android device.

Now, had Nielsen’s survey sample included only dedicated business users, who constitute the core of the BlackBerry faithful, the results might have looked somewhat different. But that highlights the very challenge BlackBerry faces in the market today: with more mobile users, including both consumers and business users, consolidating their communication, media consumption and social networking activities on a single device, the line between business and personal is rapidly eroding. And that means smartphones need to be really good at many things, not just really good for e-mail, which has historically been BlackBerry’s strong suit.

When the competition includes the iPhone 4, HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid X, Samsung Galaxy S and others in the annoyingly termed “superphone” class, BlackBerry devices seem desperately short on the “wow” factor: good enough for the faithful, but not appealing enough to attract new users to the fold. That was the consensus among analysts polled by FierceWireless. Leading tech journalists had a mixed reaction, but at best, RIM seems to have caught up with its rivals. There are few voices to suggest this latest BlackBerry surpasses the other leading smartphones on the market.

It will be interesting to watch whether the Torch and OS6 light the way as a new direction for RIM or whether the BlackBerry platform will continue to suffer from the perception that it is stagnating in the face of increasingly fierce competition in the smartphone market.

“It’s so thin!” exclaimed one of my colleagues as I unboxed the new iPhone 4 yesterday – 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS, in fact. Yes, thin is in with Apple’s latest magical device, and the overall effect is fairly dramatic.

In terms of design, Apple is to electronics as Audi is to cars. Like Audi’s most recent models, this latest iPhone goes in a slightly blockier design direction than its predecessors. I wasn’t wowed by it straight out of the box, but it feels better in your hand, which is good for those few occasions when you’ll actually use it as a phone. Changing an icon like the first iPhone and 3GS is a challenging proposition, so Apple deserves some credit for going in a different direction, especially when that decision results in greater utility for the end user.

Still, the aesthetics of the case are unlikely to stand in the way of anyone wanting the iPhone 4, especially when the screen resolution is so much clearer. Thankfully, my particular model seems to have been spared some of the screen defects that others have noted. Looking at the home screen next to that of the iPhone 3G makes me feel like my vision had just improved – all of sudden the screen isn’t so blurry anymore.

Leaving aside the specs of the much-discussed retina display and the much-dissected glass used for the screen, this major step forward will make the iPhone 4 a far better platform for not only consuming media but also producing it. Even the photos I shot on the iPhone 3G’s 2.0 megapixel camera look sharper and brighter on the iPhone 4. How long will it be until we see a music video or feature-length film shot entirely on the iPhone? Answer: probably not long.

Along with the improvements to the display, the feature set and performance upgrades are the real story here. With newfound slimness comes far greater speed. My aging iPhone 3G seemed positively sluggish by comparison. And in my limited trial, the enhancements, such as unified in-box, app switching and multitasking, all worked as advertised (I didn’t have a chance to get any FaceTime).

So, what does this mean for marketers? Mark my words, iPhone usage will skyrocket. The epic pre-order snafus will do little or nothing to dampen consumer enthusiasm, and I frankly don’t see tiered data pricing as a significant near-term impediment for sales or usage either, although network issues with AT&T are sure to crop up. But fortunately for those in-market smartphone buyers who want to opt for another carrier, there is a bumper crop of highly capable devices. For example, Verizon and Motorola just yesterday launched the new bigger and badder Droid X, and the battle between Apple and Android is only going to get more intense. It’s entertaining to watch, but the key takeaway for marketers is that it will drive more consumers to smartphones and the mobile Web, and in turn, make mobile a more viable marketing platform.

As Motorola’s Droid smartphone readies for launch, the mobile industry is rife with geeky-yet-endearing Star Wars references. Most seem to fall into the camp that this is the droid we’re looking for (check out PC World for a good round-up), but it begs the question of which droid? Will Motorola’s smartest smartphone be the multilingual (and often long-winded) C-3PO, the chirpy R2-D2 or perhaps a battle droid from the less-than-endearing second series of Star Wars prequels?

In some ways, the latter reference might be the most appropriate, now that we know Droid is not just a model but a brand. It is, in short, the first in a veritable army of devices designed to fight for domination in the increasingly contentious smartphone space.

Of course, that battle is also about individual soldiers. As with Palm’s Pre, the Droid is Motorola’s comeback device – Motorola’s first real opportunity in years to recapture some of the luster it once had in the Razr’s heyday. Droid also marks a big line in the sand for the Android platform. As I alluded in a previous post, the alliance of Verizon and Android (with the right devices – check) should provide a big boost to carrier and OS alike (and increase distribution for apps in Android Market).

The larger question is: who’s fighting whom in this battle? Naturally, sitting as it does at the top of the smartphone heap, the iPhone is always the point of comparison for any new smartphone that comes to market, but it isn’t always the target (TechCrunch very ably covers this issue here).

I tend to subscribe to the notion that Apple and Google are more frenemies than enemies, with the recent skirmish over the Google Voice app and the ensuing board of directors drama more of a distraction than anything else, at least for the time being. For now, the two will be loosely allied in a “the-enemy-of-my-friend-is-my-enemy” sort of way against Microsoft. In other words, think of mobile as an important front, but in a much larger (and longer) war for computing supremacy.

Along the way, a rebel alliance is bound to emerge, and we know how that story goes….