BlackBerry nicks iPhone's UK smartphone crown
Barely 100,000 units between 1st, 2nd, 3rd place in Q3
Smartphone sales went backwards in the UK during Q3 as customers abandoned Nokia and Apple. The figures don't look good when compared to last year's storming sales, and it's clear shoppers held off buying new gear during the build up to the latest iPhone launch.
According statistics from abacus fondlers Canalys, shipments declined 7 per cent to 5.3m units with a mixed performance from the major vendors.
"Clearly there was a big change in volumes with Apple and Nokia accounting for the vast majority of the declines but some of that deficit was made up by the likes of Samsung and HTC," said Canalys senior analyst Tim Shepherd.
BlackBerry took the UK smartphone crown from Apple despite shipments declining two per cent to 1.2 million units as Apple sales fell 26 per cent to slightly under 1.2 million handsets. In third place, Samsung soared 178 per cent to 1.1 million units.
Taiwanese firm HTC - which seized the number one spot in the US - grew 46 per cent to 800,000 units, Sony Ericsson fell 32 per cent to 300,000 units and Nokia sales collapsed 87 per cent to 130,000.
Shepherd said Apple's decline came on the back of a very strong Q3 2010 when the iPhone 4 launched, adding that customers this year kept their wallets in their pockets as they anticipated a next-gen model that turned out to be the iPhone 4S.
He said Nokia sales suffered as its product range transitioned to Windows Phone and support for Symbian dissipated: "Volumes declined rapidly as the old phone is on a system that people perceive as dead or going nowhere." ®
COMMENTS
Hardly surprising.....
In the UK, the Blackberry has gone from being the serious and sober phone for serious and sober people on the move, to being the Chavs' weapon of choice when it comes to arranging "things"......
Blackberry hard to use?
Surely you jest???
I don't own one but my wife has one for her business. As simple as. Our kids can use it.
Seriously, what's so hard? The pearl/mini-touch pad is a fantastic device and come into its own when messaging and e-mailing. One click wonder.
Good to see the riots helped out one company at least then!
Nokia shipments
Declined because elop and his minions decided not to ship any products this year. It had very little to do with demand.
Looking on all the providers tariffs earlier this year the only Nokia's actually available were some POS candy bars. Very little if anything resembling even a feature phone let alone a smartphone.
Talk about doing their damnedest to destroy themselves.
