BlackBerry has been able to slightly up its market share in the UK, reports The Inquirer. The news surely calls for a celebration from the company as for some time we only have been hearing of the Canadian firm losing market share.
BlackBerry showing promising signs in the U.K.
For the second quarter, BlackBerry’s market share was 1.2%, up from 1.1% in the second quarter of 2014. BlackBerry is surely gaining momentum in the U.K. as recently CEGS, a security arm of the U.K.’s GCHQ, announced that government employees may most likely use BlackBerry devices as the agency is satisfied with the security the BES platform offers.
“BlackBerry mobile devices were the first to be considered secure enough for use by U.K. government employees,” the CESG said. The positive nod from the agency came close to the second quarter, so there are good chances that BlackBerry sales in the U.K. will be pushed further in the third and fourth quarters.
For BlackBerry the rise was very small, but Apple’s market share was 34.1%, up from 28.5% last year. However, this number was a drop from the first quarter when Apple held over 38% of the market. Apple’s gain has come at the expense of Google’s Android operating system, says The Inquirer, citing numbers from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
Apple’s gain, Google’s loss
Google’s Android held 53.2% of the market in the quarter, compared to 60.6% in the second quarter of 2014. “Apple iOS returned to growth across all of Europe’s ‘big five’ markets, recording its first year-on-year gain in France since February 2015,” said Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
“In Europe, Android’s performance was mixed, posting its strongest year-on-year share drop in Germany since the beginning of 2015,” said Dominic Sunnebo, business unit director at Kantar. Sunnebo noted that screen size was the push for Android buyers in the main European countries. Screen size has gained importance among buyers since the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but for iOS buyers, other factors are also important, such as “phone reliability and durability, as well as the quality of the materials,” said Sunnebo.
Microsoft’s Windows Phone performed well, bagging 11.3% of the smartphone market, up from 9.6% last year, Kantar found. The biggest surprise no doubt was BlackBerry, and its market share could move up further as it recently launched the Silver Edition Passport.
