“BlackBerry still dominates the battle of the Smartphone brands in Canada”, report says

There’s approximately 25 million wireless subscribers in Canada – majority of the carriers have announced their Q3 2011 numbers and the growing trend is that customers are leaving feature phones and bolting towards smartphones. Adoption is increasing every quarter and carriers reported the percentage of postpaid smartphone users have skyrocketed to over 45% of their total subscriber base.

A new study called the “Mobil-ology Study of Smartphone, Tablet & eReader” was conducted by Ipso-Reid. Over an “eight month period between January and August of 2011” they found that the top mobile brand in the Smartphone category is BlackBerry, followed by Apple, then a “variety of other handset brands using the Android platform”, such as Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola and Sony. However, you can also look at it from an OS perspective, Ipsos stated that RIM’s BlackBerry market share percentage dropped from 41% in January to 38% in August, while Google’s Android OS collectively has 27% of the market (increased 1%), then Apple’s iOS increased from 23% in January to 25% in August.

As for tablets, the report said “Apple dominated” at the start of 2011 with 78% market share, but slipped to 56% in August when other manufacturers launched tablets. “BlackBerry emerged from 0% to 10% in those eight months and a series of other smaller newcomers have staked out very narrow slices of the market share pie at this point”. No mention of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, LG Optimus Pad, Sony Tablet or the HTC Flyer.

On an odd note, Ipsos stated a few times in the report that there is a “slowing pace of Smartphone adoption in Canada” and that “the market continues to change with plateaus in Smartphone sales”. These statements go against everything the carriers and manufacturers are reporting. Smartphone adoption and sales are both increasing, not decreasing.

Mary Beth Barbour, SVP of Ipsos Reid said “In Canada, the Big Three brands remain BlackBerry for Smartphones, Apple for Tablets and Kobo for eReaders. But as the market continues to change with plateaus in Smartphone sales, high adoption of the Tablet and continued interest in eReaders, there is no doubt these brands will face new challenges and Canadians will welcome new choices. BlackBerry’s current troubles and the recent passing of Apple’s Steve Jobs continue to keep these brands in the news, but the main challenge will be to stay fresh, remain relevant and peak the interest of buyers. And with Android and others gunning for their share of the pie, it will continue to be an exciting market to watch.”

Source: Ipsos