This article is more than 1 year old

BlackBerry: THE TRUTH about that 5.1 per cent UK market figure

Mobe maker is happy stroking its bronze

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.” ®

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like