The latest round of stats regarding the Canadian mobile landscape is courtesy of Ipsos Reid. They surveyed thousands of Canadians and over a 6-month period (August 2011 and January 2012) and basically found the same trend that the carriers report every quarter. Smartphone adoption is up, Apple and Samsung are both popular, BlackBerry is sliding and Android OS is growing.
If you’re into percentages, here’s what Ipsos is reporting:
– Smartphone ownership grew by 13%
– Tablets ownership grew by 66%
– 24% of Canadians stated they owned a smartphone in August, compared to 34% in January
– BlackBerry’s market share shrank from 41% to 33% (during the 6-month survey period)
– Apple’s iPhone market share increased from 23% to 28%
– “Brands” using the Android platform grew from approximately 26% to 31%
– 40% of respondents intended to purchase a BlackBerry (down from 58% last year)
– 32% of respondents intended to purchase a Samsung smartphone, up from 21% the previous year
– In August 2011, 3% of Canadians said they owned a tablet, compared to 10% in January 2012
– Apple’s iPad market share slipped to 47% from 78% a year ago. The massive drop was attributed to “the entrance of new competitors such as the Samsung Galaxy and BlackBerry PlayBook”
Nothing really shocking, apart from the iPad slip. This could have been really caused by the Fire sale that RIM promoted for the PlayBook – at one time say it drop to $99 outright. A year from now it’ll be interesting to see where RIM is, specifically with their new BlackBerry 10 smartphones.
Mary Beth Barbour, SVP with Ipsos Reid stated there are “clear shifts in brand preference appear when we look at the brands of devices consumers are currently using, and looking forward, it appears that the brand race will continue to heat up.”
Source: Ipsos
