BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY) Global Market Share Just 1.5%, Android at 81%

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While BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s new cross-platform BBM messaging app is enjoying unprecedented popularity, data from research firm ABI Research reveals that the Canadian firm’s share in the global smartphone market is on the verge of extinction.BlackBerry

BlackBerry almost out of race for the third ecosystem

For the third quarter, a total of 244 million smartphones were shipped, with bulk of them from Korean major Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930), who shipped around 85.4 million units, grabbing 35% of the market share. Market share of the most popular brand, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was relatively stable at 14% while the phones based on Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Windows platform witnessed a growth of 165% year on year, and accounted for 4% of the global market share. Nokia accounted for 95% of the Windows Phone shipments. But for BlackBerry, the global market share of this pioneer smartphone maker has been reduced to just 1.5%.

ABI analyst Michael Morgan believes that the competition for the third ecosystem is “clearly favoring Windows Phone” over BlackBerry. Analysts also pointed out that it will be very tough for “new market entrants to make a significant impact on Android’s dominance.”

Android dominance to continue

Apart from Samsung, other smartphone makers (Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi) using the Android platform also witnessed robust channel sales. According to the research firm, Android platform dominates the global market with a 80.6% share, and this dominance will continue in the current quarter, despite a strong performance from Apple backed by its new launches, the iPhone 5S and 5C.

Another analyst points that even if Apple posts record iPhone sales for the fourth quarter, it will only grab an 18.7% market share, which is less than its 22.6% share in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Smartphone shipments to rise

Another research firm, IDC, expects strong momentum in the fourth quarter along with a record quarter and year for the global smartphone market. It is expected that smartphone shipments will touch one billion units in the year, which will be a significant achievement, considering the number was only half a billion units in 2011. In the third quarter, the smartphone market increased by 38.8% with total shipments of 258.4 million.

For the third quarter, total shipments for the worldwide mobile phone market, which includes smartphones, came in at 467.9 million units compared to 442.7 million in the same period last year.

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