UK BlackBerry users dwindle to fewer than 1m
The slow erosion of BlackBerry’s user base is reflected in the latest mobile forecast to be compiled by eMarketer, which show the once dominant mobile player has seen its UK market share slumped below the 1m mark.
It predicts that the operating system will fall below the psychologically important figure this year with as few as 700,000 users remaining in the UK, a figure which is expected to fall further to 400,000 by 2017.
This laggard performance has already seen BlackBerry overtaken by Windows Phone which is expected to reach 3.3m UK users this year, placing it in a distant third behind market leaders Android and iOS.
Bill Fisher, UK analyst at eMarketer, commented: "BlackBerry's fall from grace has been spectacular, but these latest figures show that even its previously loyal core seems to be leaving in droves. Its market share has been decimated by Android and iOS, and more recently by Windows Phone, which is slowly gaining a foothold in the UK market.
“As these operating systems continue to see growth in their market shares, it's likely we'll see BlackBerry drop off the map completely, leaving us with just three main players in the UK market.”
This year Android is expected to lead the way with a market share of 56.2 per cent, followed by iOS on 32.2 per cent and Windows Phone with 8.5 per cent. BlackBerry meanwhile will languish at around 1.9 per cent having been as high as 8 per cent just two years ago.