Canadians like BlackBerry more than other smartphone platforms
Despite reports that say RIM has fallen behind the curve, BlackBerry is still the top-rated operating system among Canada’s smartphone owners.
RIM often takes a beating in the press because of outages and market share reports that paint a picture of the company falling behind Apple and Google. The growing perception is that RIM has already lost the global smartphone wars because of a failure to adapt. Well, that’s not exactly the case in Canada.
Comscore has released new data from its mobileLens report that says that BlackBerry isn’t dead; it’s still the top smartphone operating system in Canada. RIM’s BlackBerry accounts for 35.8 percent of smartphones in Canada, ahead of the 30.1 percent claimed by Apple’s iPhone and 25.0 percent by Google’s Android. Despite Android and iPhone devices dominating the smartphone market in the U.S. and Western Europe, Canadians are still holding on to their beloved BlackBerry phones. Is it because of hometown loyalty to the Waterloo-based RIM or because despite the “wow” factor for other platforms, a BlackBerry still speaks to a large audience?
Whatever the case, RIM is still holding on to the top spot among Canada’s estimated 8 million smartphone owners. However, its grasp is slipping. In a report issued in June, RIM had a 42 percent market share and Android was at only 12.2 percent. That means Android doubled while RIM lost 6 percentage points. A combination of new smartphone buyers and some converts likely tipped the numbers in Google’s favour, so that next-generation BlackBerry device can’t arrive soon enough for RIM’s sake.
Comscore shared some other noteworthy insight into the habits of Canadian phone users
- 40 percent own a smartphone. That’s slightly higher than the U.S. rate of 37 percent.
- Samsung is the top manufacturer for phones sold in Canada. Combining smartphone and feature phone sales, it accounts for 1 of every 4 mobile phone.
- Not surprisingly, smartphone buyers are far more likely to do things like browse the web, access email, play games, listen to music, and other activities (sometimes between 2x and 3x more).
Here’s a full chart of the report courtesy of comscore.
I’ve been at a table with at least 8 people the last several months several times. Every time the topic of cellphones comes up and we check to see how many iPhones there are vs Blackberries. Normally it’s 7-1 that people have an iPhone and the person with the Blackberry has an iPhone 4s on order.
This sounds like a very fishy stat about Blackberry being more popular considering how many people I know that know other people who just can’t put up with Blackberry anymore.
Blackberry is going to be the new Bell Canada. Everyone hates it due to terrible quality and service.
Obviously your friends all Americans.
@ Andrew
This is research buddy. Just because the table you’re at have Iphone4 doesnt mean the ratio for the rest of Canada should be 7-1 as well
@Andrew
I just came from a meeting with 9 people, the count 6 Blackberry 2 LG 1 iphone so like aditya said just because your at a table with 7 iphones it’s not representative of what everyone is using. Most researchers would base studies on a minimum of 1000 people to extrapolate any data.
i do not have an iPHONE will NEVER have an i phone..i love my BB..and will ALWAYS have BB as long as they are made..it has a longer battery life..a keyboard i can actually use…i can choose my provider..and get the best and cheapest plan..and it does the job.
Andrew, your a ***, go shove the iphone up your ***
Oh well played dude, real mature of you and over the internet of all places.
Enjoy your Blackberry when there’s no company left to support it.
You’re an assclown, say that to my face chump and I’ll set a new tune for you.
We’ll see who’s boss then.
As for their research, I guess being in Canada that makes sense but the Canadian city I live in it seems everyone I see owns a non Blackberry device.
Give it a few more years of poor quality and this stat will change anyways.
Yeah, and you’re really portraying yourself as the mature one…Good call. Sink to his level, that’ll set you apart. Let me guess…you’re being creative?
Andrew
Did any of you or your friends have jobs.
the research I found is that the only people who have I anything
dont have jobs or pay for them.
Dont get me wrong it is a nice phon but the facts are the cost of the
phone is way to much.
I go with the BB on cost and the fact I live in Canada
As for the press give it a rest beat up on someone else
For what it’s worth, in my experience, Andrew’s experience is more accurate than most of what I read here. The few people I know with BB’s have them for work (and are supplied by their employers often) are eyeing the iPhone 4s with a lot of envy. BB needs to step it up sooner rather than later. Or risk becoming Canada’s next Nortel.
I used to have a company paid blackberry (8900). The contract ended and they decided not to renew (the phone contract). I bought the New Samsung Galaxy S2 for personal use. Performance aside I prefer the android operating system. I can’t say that I miss the blackberry.
I have the new BB9900 and I like it alot. The iPhone has way more apps but for business the BB does what I need it to do. Also, BBM is free and encrypted such that I can talk with peace of mind knowing that my employer cannot easily see what I am typing for personal use. Not that I have anything to hide but there is a sense of privacy. The iPhone does not have this quite the opposite…remember the embedded location finder, texts are easily read by an employer. So, for business the BB rules. For personal games and to hang out with your boyz…iPhone.
I agree with Andrew. Of the literally dozens of people I know who HAD a blackberry, the majority have gone to iphones or another similar type. The biggest complaint they had was the picture sharing.
Say what you want about BB, but I’d rather have an OS that can actually be updated rather than running an outdated Android system, or having to buy a whole new phone with Apple. BB’s are business phones, which explains why they are lagging behind in the multimedia dept. The only reason I’m considering the Samsung Galaxy II S is because it has HDMI out, takes 1080p videos and has a phenomenal camera. If there were a BB model that did this, I would be all over it. Put all that on a BB and productivity would DIE in the workplace. I’m all about open source (run openSuSE on my laptop), so the only thing I wish for would be for RIM to open up the OS a little, I envy that about Android. As for the iPhone, well, that’s for people who can’t fix their own problems and would prefer to live in the Matrix.
Between my family and myself, I have seen the BB Curve, Bold, Pearl, and Torch from RIM and the iPhone 4 from Apple. For business, I do feel the BB has had a slight edge, although that edge is eroding. The BB has had limitations in the past on displaying attachments easily, yet the keyboard and email system has been the saver. The iPhone is showing vast improvements on corporate email, but where it really shines on handling any files thrown at it. I do miss a good keyboard and feel this is where the iPhone will not ever be as good, but the ability to work on the fly has been far easier with the iPhone in my opinion. BBM is also being challenged by iMessage (os 5) btw, to whoever made that comment.
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