Despite recent figures that depict Research In Motion's leading role in the U.K. smartphone market as positive, the company's actual stance is questionable.
Research In Motion said BlackBerry accounted for 26.3 percent of smartphone sales in the U.K. in December 2011, and an average of 27.7 percent of the market across the whole year, which would make it the best-selling smartphone brand for the second consecutive year, according to the manufacturer in a report by PC Advisor.
RIM also stated that BlackBerry subscribers increased to 75 million worldwide, with the U.K. accounting for 8.5 million; however, these figures may not paint an accurate picture of BlackBerry's recent performance in the U.K. market.
Kantar Worldpanel ComTech revealed that BlackBerry accounted for only 16 percent of smartphone sales during a 12-week period ending on Dec. 25, 2011. If accurate, those figures would depict a far less optimistic market landscape for BlackBerry in the U.K.
BlackBerry would be the third most popular smartphone brand in the U.K., behind both Google's Android, which accounts for about 44 percent of the market, and Apple's iPhone, which accounts for 34 percent of the market, the report said.
With the rise of Apple and Android, RIM has taken a market-share hit across the globe in the last couple of years, particularly in the U.S., where it has slipped from the dominant leader to a distant third.
