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Global smartphone market share of BlackBerry’s BB10 drops below 1%

BlackBerry's DTEK50

In what is telling statistic that signals the end of an era, BB10’s global market share has officially dropped below one percent.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, over 432 million smartphones were sold around the world, according to research analytics firm Gartner. Of those smartphones, only 207,900 were BlackBerry devices running the company’s proprietary BB10 operating system, giving the Waterloo, Canada-based company an overall market share of less than one percent — specifically 0.0481 percent.

Other players in the mobile space like Android, for instance, captured 81.7 percent of the global smartphone market with 352.7 million smartphones sold. Apple meanwhile sold 77 million units in the quarter, helping iOS capture 17.9 percent share of the overall mobile market.

Gartner smartphone distribution numbers

It’s important to note that Gartner’s study does not offer a breakdown of Android shipments by manufacturer. This means there’s not enough data to calculate BlackBerry’s share of the Android pie. The data, however, does confirm that BlackBerry’s proprietary BB10 operating system is dead in the water.

Looking back at Gartner’s earlier Q3 2016 study, BB10’s marketshare sits at 0.1 percent with estimated sales of 377,800 devices, so the number falling even lower is not surprising.

While MobileSyrup published a story back in January citing that BlackBerry has no plans to release a new BB10 device in the future, the company quickly backtracked on that statement, reiterating its commitment to the OS, citing the release of BB10.3.3 as an example.

The former smartphone giant also said, “Regarding new BlackBerry 10 hardware, the company hasn’t commented on the future roadmap.”

BlackBerry is currently engaged in a patent-infringement lawsuit with Nokia. BlackBerry says Nokia has been taking advantage of industry-wide technology standards it holds the license to.

BlackBerry’s next smartphone is currently code named ‘Mercury’ and is expected to be revealed at Mobile World Congress later this month.

Source: Gartner

Via: Business Insider

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