This week, the US Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge by Research In Motion to the patent infringement case won by NTP. This moves the possibility one step closer that an injunction halting wireless email service on BlackBerrys. RIM has many legal avenues that it can pursue to delay this from happening.

However, In-Stat commissioned a survey of the likely behavior of wireless users, and found that the outcome of shutdown is sufficiently dire that carriers must not assume that RIM will be successful. Among the findings, In-Stat found that only 20% of users would continue to use their BlackBerry should a shut-down occur. Given the high value of the average BlackBerry user, carriers should not wait for a competitor to offer an alternate solution.