RIM: We topped December smartphone sales chart
Maybe, but only just
The popularity of RIM's BlackBerry may be on the wane elsewhere but here in the world, it was the most popular smartphone platform for the second year running in the UK, RIM claimed today.
Citing over-the-counter sales data from European market watcher GfK, the embattbled smartphone maker said it accounted for, on average 27.7 per cent of the smartphones sold each month during 2011.
Of the smartphones sold in December 2011, 26.3 per cent of them carried the BlackBerry brand. The service has 8.5m subscribers here.
GfK holds its figures close to its chest and wouldn't provide sales data for the likes of Apple and Samsung, so we can't say precisely by how much RIM is leading the market. Nor would GfK confirm whether the sales data stated by RIM is correct.
However, November 2011 data from market watcher Kantar Worldpanel ComTech suggested that the BlackBerry OS held 22.5 per cent of the UK smartphone userbase, just ahead of iOS - 18.5 per cent - but behind Android - 49.9 per cent.
So RIM may indeed be the most popular smartphone platform, but only just. ®
COMMENTS
Blackberry is the phone of choice when you don't have a choice but your boss does.
Blackberry. The rioters friend.
"citing over-the-counter sales". Well that's at least a lot more honest than the "units shipped" cited by Microsoft and others ...
easy, BIS is free to message each other. So they dont run up a bill. PAYG on minimum monthly credit makes a cheap text device
RIM resting on its laurels
@Mr Cheddarfingers: "Well, them and just about every business user in the country."
There was a time when that was almost true. RIM did offer services unmatched by any other company. But they haven't maintained that forward momentum, and there's no clear reason for business users to choose a Blackberry. And there are some good reasons for using products from its competitors.
"So RIM may indeed be the most popular smartphone platform, but only just" how was that worked out when Android has close to 50% of the market share? Even if RIM is doing well in UK, that is no hope if it is declining everywhere else in the world. Developer support and even RIM's own support will wane as there are less world wide users. This in turn will eventually turn the UK market away from RIM as well. I think any growth in RIM is just temporary. (Unless of course RIM makes drastic changes to their strategy).
