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

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 …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Our Survey Say's

    100 i-phone users were asked what phone they have.

    Apple has a 99% market share the world over

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Our Survey Say's

      Lol - 99% of iPhones users knowing who makes it? Nowhere near - I'd suggest more like 70% - having met some of the iPhone users :-)

      (mind you I could say that about other products too - maybe)

      1. Frank Bough
        FAIL

        Re: Our Survey Say's

        Thing is, Apple's logo is an apple, and it's prominently displayed on all of their products. My 3 year old daughter called my phone 'apple' before she knew it was a phone.

        So you're wrong as well as being a massive bell-end.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Our Survey Say's

      100 android users were asked if they had ever suffered from malware on their phone

      14 replied that they had.

      86% of the rest did have it but just didn't know it yet.

      So is it right to assume from this that 14% of android users have had malware problems when in fact statistically it is much higher.

  2. JDX Gold badge

    Market share of market share of new devices?

    Which is being measured and valued? For instance BB/MS could have 5% of the total market share but be selling 20% of new phones (in theory) and this would give two very different pictures.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I know who I believe,

    I havn't anyone with a BB10, and I don't know anyone that wants one... Ditto for Windows Phone.

    It's a two horse race now. Windows Phone and Blackberry are effectively dead. Despite the frankly desperate tactics that Microsoft and RIM have resorted to...

    http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/04/30/microsoft-just-released-an-android-app-that-prepares-you-for-switching-to-windows-phone-by-lying-to-you/

    1. Dave's Jubblies

      Re: I know who I believe,

      Strange you put it like that. As Whilst I agree on BB, I literally don't know a single person with one, and I currently work in a very large organisation with a huge BB base.

      But I do see WPs knocking about in here. Public penetration is growing... Probably down to Nokia.

      And calling Wp and BB dead in the water... WP is actually growing it's share, so calling it dead, whatever your personal view (bias?) is premature at least, plain wrong in fact.

      As for BB, well, it will have to lever it's business base brilliantly to hold onto it, as the yoof crowd that gave it it's public user base is certainly moving on.

      I also don't get this actual 'anger' that people express towards other platforms that they don't personally own or like. What exactly is wrong with choice? What is wrong with being different?

      You can say one thing for sure, if it wasn't for the other competing platforms, your own platform of choice wouldn't be as 'good' as you find it today.

      1. Jess

        don't get this actual 'anger' that people express towards other platforms

        For me and No-Win it is because they pulled the plug on the platform I liked.

        I hope the Lumias flop badly. Don't give a damn about the other Win Phones.

    2. Ryan Clark

      Re: I know who I believe,

      Did a migration for someone last week who had BB10, WinPho8 and Android phones. As well as win8 tablet and a mac book pro. Of the phones, windows was his favourite device although he did seem to use the note 2 more.

      I was surprised last time I was on the train how many windows phones I saw. They does appear to be some traction there.

    3. GitMeMyShootinIrons

      Re: I know who I believe,

      While I agree about BB10 (the only handsets I've seen were on a rather desperate display stand in a shopping centre, plus a few gathering dust in shops), I've seen a fair few new Windows Mobile devices. Probably not to the same level as Android or Apple, I'll grant you, but still sufficient to justify it's place as an also-ran.

      I'd sooner take a Windows mobile over either Android or Apple at the moment (And I use an iPhone and have a Galaxy Tab and a Nokia Lumia in the household).

      The latter has become somewhat tired, with the cost no longer justifying it's benefits. When was the last time iOS actually gained anything innovative? Even Siri was an acquisition of an existing app. Of course, most of the iFashionistas replacing their iPhones yearly don't care, drinking skinny latte and smugly looking down on the Chavs with old BB or new 'Droid handsets..

      The former is a mixed bag of random handsets (some good, some not so much, some waaaay too big...) with an underlying OS by a company who makes money by peddling personal data and advertising - 'do no evil'? Yeah, OK.... Besides, being associated with such an unnecessarily defensive, virulent, obsessive fanboy community sends shudders down my spine.

      To be honest, all of them leave me cold at the moment. I'll stick to my iPhone 4 - yes, it's three years old, but it isn't the size of a small continent and runs everything I need and then some without any problems. At the end of the day, it isn't about the badge, it's about whether it does what you want it to do.

      1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        Pirate

        Re: GitMeMyShootinIrons Re: I know who I believe,

        ".....it isn't about the badge, it's about whether it does what you want it to do." Nooooo, our whole consumer-fed economy will collapse if people actually start thinking that! ;)

        Personally, for my own use as a consumer and if someone else was paying, I could happilly use an Android, iPhone or WP device. I might feel tempted to hide the iPhone away so as not to be asssociated with the iFanbois, but that doesn't detract from the fact it does a good job. However, if it was my own money, and seeing as I don't really do anything too inventive with a phone anyway, I'd probably get an Android device as there is simply more choice.

        For work, however, there is no substitute for a Blackberry and BES, not even M$'s latest attempt. And that is where BB still make enough money not to worry too much about whether their product is winning with the Chavs.

      2. Frank Bough
        FAIL

        Re: I know who I believe,

        "The latter has become somewhat tired, with the cost no longer justifying it's benefits. When was the last time iOS actually gained anything innovative? Even Siri was an acquisition of an existing app. Of course, most of the iFashionistas replacing their iPhones yearly don't care, drinking skinny latte and smugly looking down on the Chavs with old BB or new 'Droid handsets.."

        iPhone users update every 2 years, as you would know if you knew anything.

        Well done on manipulating your keyboard to issue, though.

    4. JDX Gold badge

      Re: I know who I believe,

      A sample of 1 is always so compelling. Doubly so when posting as AC.

  4. 1Rafayal
    FAIL

    I would buy a Windows phone over a blackberry or iphone.

    So, now you know someone who wants one.

  5. Gordon Pryra

    Would these figures not be worse?

    I mean I can understand a 5% market share when people are forced to use the handset, but over the counter suggests real people having a choice. And who the hell chooses a small screen over one of the many alternatives (many cheaper)

    I know no-one who has a personal blackberry

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Would these figures not be worse?

      Whereas I know several, including two who can't bear all-touchscreen phones and one who runs several small businesses from his and regards everything else as just being inadequate for email handling.

      What is it about phones that causes these outbursts of unreasonable rage? Do we identify with them so closely because they are so personal?

      Mind you, I don't like anything, regardless of maker, operating system or screen technology, where an overheating lithium battery hasn't got a simple, low pressure way of venting (like popping a thin plastic back off). But that may be because I've actually seen what lithium batteries can do.

  6. RyokuMas
    Stop

    "One million shipped..."

    No sign of an actual sales figure though. Or returns. Or any of the other figures that seem to get bandied about in every time a phone-related thread comes out to attempt to prove that OS-whatever is gaining traction or failing.

    ... and nobody's falling for it.

    Despite my developer senses screaming "oh god, more platforms to port to!", I'd still prefer to see a wide range of options available to the customer rather than a two/three/four horse race. Innovation is driven by competition, after all.

    1. Paul Shirley

      Re: "One million shipped..."

      Innovation is driven by *effective* competition, the stronger the better.

      I see Google innovating Android under Apple pressure.

      Apple innovating legal theory under pressure from Android.

      I cant see anything suggesting WP or BB are creating any competitive pressure or driving innovation outside their own products... and for one of them that innovation seems headed in the wrong direction!

      1. Levente Szileszky
        WTF?

        Re: "One million shipped..."

        "I cant see anything suggesting WP or BB are creating any competitive pressure or driving innovation outside their own products... and for one of them that innovation seems headed in the wrong direction!"

        I have no idea what are you talking about but I suspect neither do you - who's headed where?

        I'd also bet you never played with a Z10 for 10-15 minutes, otherwise you'd know BB10's UI, while still needs some refinement, is nothing short of being brilliantly simple and effective, even with one-hand - and I'm a hardcore Android user. Z10's comm center (The Hub) is pretty far ahead of Android's disparate Messaging, Talk, Gmail, Email etc apps (and Android is already ahead of iOS' utter crap comm features), not to mention BB10's built-in project mgmgt/information/organizer/whatnot/manager (I think it's called Remember), working in tandem with calendar, emails, pics whatnot (yes, it can sync with Evernote)... none of them are perfect but they already show BB still got plenty of smart, innovative minds - conversely can you name ONE thing Apple "innovated' in the past few years (they never invented anything, let's generously stick with 'innovation' for now)...?

        The only thing that might come close is probably Siri but even that was a usual 'lets-make-a-better-copycat' move from, Apple (voice control was already available on phones running as early as Windows CE or Palm OS as I recall)...

        ...as for WP I cannot really say much, to each his own - its home page as annoying as possible, the fact that every single new OS version requires a brand new handset is downright ridiculous, just shows how utterly broken MSFT is inside, all the way to the top.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Interesting anecdotes...

    I'm always amused by people who say "I know no-one who owns a x/y/z phone", as if that should tell us that their social circle is so huge and diverse that it too should be upscaled to demonstrate the global market share.

    I switched from a Torch to the Z10 last week and think it's great; others will hate the interface or the size or the placement of the buttons, and that's their right to do so, just as I wasn't overly impressed by Apple or a variety of Android handsets. My choice as a consumer. What I did appreciate was being able to look at 4 different OSs and make an informed judgement as to which I preferred. If BlackBerry and Microsoft were to bunk out of the market as so many people here suggest they should do, I would have had only 2 to choose between; it seems that there is so much rabid OS-attachment out there that people have lost the understanding of the value of competition and choice.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    BB Z10

    Have one. Nothing wrong with it. Does exactly what it should do, fast, good browser, flash support (maybe not a good thing!) and enterprise e-mail through BES. I wouldn't have anything else, personally.

  9. Shagbag
    FAIL

    "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".

    ie. the don't recognise any sales outside of the retail channel, eg. internet sales.

    This myopic view (of bad retail sales) what the one being touted around for all those years that PC Gaming was dead.

  10. Sporkinum

    BB

    I really don't care what I use as long as my employer keeps paying for it. Right now, that's a Bold 9850. If I had to get a phone that I paid for, I'd get a prepaid as I wouldn't use it enough to justify a month to month expense.

    I know I am old as every time I see WP in reference to Windows Phone, I think Word Perfect.

  11. 100113.1537
    WTF?

    Marketing hype - or market manipulation?

    I have come to distrust everything I hear/read on Rim/Blackberry because there are too many people with a vested interest in manipulating the share price up or down. I know many people who actually work for RIM and they are just as amazed at what they read.

    It is a shame when a company can live or die by rumour (some of it blatant lies released to manipulate the stock price) - even RIM......

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