The mobile storefront was once a golden, wide open field populated by manufacturers a plenty, hoping to best each other with better and cheaper handsets. All of this was with the intention of gaining some rays of sunlight from the shade of Nokia and BlackBerry.
Nokia attracted users with polyphonic ringtones, swop covers and build quality so solid that you could run it over with a truck. Its main competitor, BlackBerry, had a full keyboard, a funky click ball and real email! Times have changed quickly and sharply for BlackBerry, and it’s now almost all gone; its dwindling user base now with less than 1 million UK users.
Lower Than Windows
The once dominant enterprise powerhouse also attracted a wide teen user base with services like BBM. They have tried everything from going back to basics to trying something completely new. The latest figures from eMarketer show that it’s all but over for the Blackberry with 700,000 remaining users in the UK.
“BlackBerry’s fall from grace has been spectacular, but these latest figures show that even its previously loyal core seems to be leaving in droves.” – Bill Fisher, UK analyst at eMarketer
Already surpassed by 3.3million Windows Phone users, and with salt firmly rubbed into the wounds, it will only get worse for Blackberry. The user base will shrink more unless something drastic happens, predicted to dip below 400,000 users by 2017 – leaving it well in the realms of being included in the ‘others’ piece of the pie chart being dominated by iOS and Android.
BlackBerry et al
Blackberry held 8% of the market just two years ago, and Fisher discussed a market that is totally blacked out by Apple and Google’s Android, and the very real chance Blackberry will “drop off the map completely, leaving us with just three main players in the UK market.”
Android is expected to continue to lead the market with 56.2% market share for the foreseeable future. Followed by Apple’s iOS on 32.2 per cent and Windows Phone with 8.5 per cent, that leaves just 1.9% for Blackberry to grab hold of – will they even be around a year from now?
[button link=”http://www.emarketer.com/Article/BlackBerry-Loses-Windows-Phone-UK/1011133″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: eMarketer[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
