BlackBerry accounted for zero percent of the U.S. smartphone market share in the fourth quarter of 2013, revealed market research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). For a company with a "For Sale" sign this comes as no surprise.
BlackBerry struggled to mark its presence in the highly competitive smartphone market. As expected by several analytics firms, the phone maker was unable to push as many smartphones, despite bringing some new entries to the market. According to CIRP, BlackBerry did not find favor with the consumers at all, hitting zero with the U.S. consumers in the fourth quarter of 2013.
The research firm also revealed the market share of other mobile phone operating systems. According to the report, iOS dominated with 48 percent of the U.S. market share in Q4, 2013, while Android trailed behind with 46 percent. Windows Phone market share showed it had taken 3 percent, same as basic mobile phones, the company said in a press release (via BGR).
Apple iPhone 5S and 5C contributed heavily to secure a dominating position in the smartphone market, which is won by Android most of the time.
BlackBerry's poor activation rate in the fourth quarter last year was predictable as the company had a "For Sale" sign hung around its neck. The last earnings report in December showed that BlackBerry pushed 1.9 million total smartphones in the quarter, which was mainly contributed by BlackBerry 7 devices targeted toward emerging markets.
CIRP's estimates are based on only consumers and not the enterprise group that BlackBerry targets. CIRP had a sample size of just 500 people in its survey. Another report from comScore in November showed BlackBerry had a favorable 3.5 percent share, better than a big zero on its report card.
BlackBerry launched its most recent BlackBerry 10 OS one year ago, but the company has failed in its attempt to find a respectable share in the market . The sales of BB10 based handsets were minimal and the company has found it difficult to compete in market dominated by Apple and Samsung smartphones.
