BlackBerry Canadian Market Share More Than Doubles

bbry market share

BlackBerry has been making up ground in several key markets, but for the past few years has struggled on their home continent. Some good news today, from Raymond James, indicates BlackBerry is, in fact, gaining ground on the competition on it’s home turf. Highlighting a Q1 sell through, BlackBerry has made a huge gain in Canada increasing their market share from 6% in Q4 of 2012 to 13.5% in Q1 of this year.

These numbers demonstrate the power of the full touch Z10 device, as this metric covers only the Q1 segment of the platform launch, which includes only Z10 sales – as the Q10 was only recently released. With allegations of slowing Z10 sales and a hot Q10 sell through, it is only sensible we see an even greater jump in smartphone market share for BlackBerry once numbers for Q2 2013 are digested and released. This – of course – has everything to do with user adoption, continued Enterprise support, and support from marketing campaigns in domestic markets that keep the product relevant, and at eye-level with most consumers.

Of course, BlackBerry has a ways to go in order to catch up with mobile giant Apple that manages to hold slightly more than 40% of Canadian mobile market share, but it’s a great jump and proves the platform will succeed with proper support. We must keep in mind that these numbers are pre-Q10 release in the US. Carrier delays have assured this device will not see the light of day until the end of May to beginning of June for most US carriers. This may not be all bad, for BlackBerry, since they have survived the launch of competitor units such as the Galaxy S4 and HTC One. It seems as if most consumers wanting a full touch or QWERTY device have either already purchased, or made plans to purchase a BlackBerry device. The question we mus task ourselves is, how will this momentum carry in the coming months.

There is no doubt that challenges for BlackBerry still remain. With the Q5 filling the emerging market segment, BlackBerry should see an increase in global market share, but most analysts struggle to see how this will help their domestic dominance and may not be enough to keep them relevant in Canada and the US.

Personally, after showing my device off to friends and family, I’ve assured numerous converts that have swayed even the most loyal Android or Apple users. The difficulty faced here is not the quality of the platform, but how it can withstand the test of time in a market that needs to be instructed how to proceed; marketing relevance will most definitely be key in these domestic markets. The platform’s longevity will be measured not only by it’s fans, but by the ability of BlackBerry to stand by it’s product and maintain it’s persistence in the mobile computing space.

Currently shares of BBRY are trading at $15.15 up 3.66% from last Friday’s session.