BlackBerry's Smartphone Market Share Has Reached 0 Percent The creator of the iconic "CrackBerry" has fallen far behind its competitors.
By Rose Leadem
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
It's official -- BlackBerry has finally been pushed out of the iPhone and Android-infused smartphone market.
Marking the end of an era, the Canadian mobile company's share of the smartphone market has officially reached 0.0 percent, Business Insider reports.
In the fourth quarter of 2016, BlackBerry held a sliver of market share -- approximately 0.0482 percent -- and sold only 207,900 devices running on BlackBerry's operating system, according to Gartner research. Smartphone manufacturers worldwide sold 431 million units that quarter, with 352.7 million of those running on Android operating systems and 77 million on Apple iOS.
Today, the amount of devices running on BlackBerry operating systems is extremely low. In the third quarter last year, BlackBerry's OS had 0.1 percent market share. Many BlackBerry devices now run on Android, though those also make up a small proportion of the overall smartphone market. Throughout 2016, BlackBerry didn't release any new phones that run on its mobile operating system, BB10.
However, the company is adamant that the OS isn't dead. "BB10 has a strong following around the world in enterprise and government, as well as consumers in particular markets," Alex Thurber, BlackBerry's senior vice president for global device sales, told The Financial Post.
Before the rise of the iPhone and Samsung smartphones, the "CrackBerry" was the handheld computer of choice for business professionals. In September 2016, BlackBerry announced it would stop making its own phones and rely on third-party partners for any BlackBerry-branded devices.
