BlackBerry: THE TRUTH about that 5.1 per cent UK market figure
Mobe maker is happy stroking its bronze
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BlackBerry has rebutted a claim that its UK smartphone market share was just 5.1 per cent during the first three months of 2013.
It says independent sales figures show it notched up ten per cent of the market during that period.
The smaller figure comes from Kantar WorldPanel ComTech, a market watcher, and was released earlier this week. Kantar bases its numbers on the results of a survey of phone buyers - the firm “measures through a consumer panel actual consumer behaviour”.
GfK, another market watcher, derives its figures from over-the-counter sales figures - it “uses the world’s largest retail network to track products... based on point-of-sale data” - and it is GfK’s number that BlackBerry quotes and insists is the more accurate.
Both research firms use a limited set of data and scale it up to give a national picture using statistical methods. GfK doesn’t release its figures to the press or confirm what vendors claim they are - we know, we’ve asked it in the past. So unfortunately we only have BlackBerry’s word that that is what GfK puts its sales at.
You pays your money, you takes your choice.
We asked BlackBerry to show us the GfK data, but it has yet to provide us with a copy. Instead we have this statement: “With one million BlackBerry 10 devices shipped globally in February alone and a positive response to the new BlackBerry Q10 in the UK, we’re confident of maintaining and strengthening our position as the third most popular smartphone [vendor] in the UK market.” ®
COMMENTS
Highly Rated
Interesting anecdotes...
I'm always amused by people who say "I know no-one who owns a x/y/z phone", as if that should tell us that their social circle is so huge and diverse that it too should be upscaled to demonstrate the global market share.
I switched from a Torch to the Z10 last week and think it's great; others will hate the interface or the size or the placement of the buttons, and that's their right to do so, just as I wasn't overly impressed by Apple or a variety of Android handsets. My choice as a consumer. What I did appreciate was being able to look at 4 different OSs and make an informed judgement as to which I preferred. If BlackBerry and Microsoft were to bunk out of the market as so many people here suggest they should do, I would have had only 2 to choose between; it seems that there is so much rabid OS-attachment out there that people have lost the understanding of the value of competition and choice.
Re: Race for 3rd Place - merit vs marketing and corruption
One thing you can count on in any phone thread.
Eadon coming in and spouting the same old bollocks.
Re: I know who I believe,
Strange you put it like that. As Whilst I agree on BB, I literally don't know a single person with one, and I currently work in a very large organisation with a huge BB base.
But I do see WPs knocking about in here. Public penetration is growing... Probably down to Nokia.
And calling Wp and BB dead in the water... WP is actually growing it's share, so calling it dead, whatever your personal view (bias?) is premature at least, plain wrong in fact.
As for BB, well, it will have to lever it's business base brilliantly to hold onto it, as the yoof crowd that gave it it's public user base is certainly moving on.
I also don't get this actual 'anger' that people express towards other platforms that they don't personally own or like. What exactly is wrong with choice? What is wrong with being different?
You can say one thing for sure, if it wasn't for the other competing platforms, your own platform of choice wouldn't be as 'good' as you find it today.
Re: I know who I believe,
Did a migration for someone last week who had BB10, WinPho8 and Android phones. As well as win8 tablet and a mac book pro. Of the phones, windows was his favourite device although he did seem to use the note 2 more.
I was surprised last time I was on the train how many windows phones I saw. They does appear to be some traction there.
BB Z10
Have one. Nothing wrong with it. Does exactly what it should do, fast, good browser, flash support (maybe not a good thing!) and enterprise e-mail through BES. I wouldn't have anything else, personally.
