Windows surpasses BlackBerry in smartphone shipments: report

TORONTO – Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry has lost its third place ranking in global smartphone shipments to the Windows Phone operating system, according to a report from International Data Corporation (IDC).

BlackBerry dropped to fourth place with 2.9 per cent of the market share during the first quarter of 2013, down from 6.4 per cent during the same period last year.

The Waterloo, Ont. based smartphone maker’s shipments fell to 6.3 million, compared to 9.7 million a year ago.

But IDC notes that these results mask the progress BlackBerry has made recently.

“In its first quarter of availability, BlackBerry formally introduced and shipped more than a million units running on its new BB10 platform, a significant breakthrough for the company,” read the report.

“At the same time, BlackBerry still relied on its BB7 smartphones for the majority of its shipment volume, which, due to their lower prices, were well received within key markets.”

Windows Phone, on the other hand, saw its market share increase to 3.2 per cent the first quarter of 2013, up from 2.0 per cent last year. The company showed the largest year-over-year gain of the leading operating systems as shipments rose from three million to seven million.

IDC credits the partnership between Windows Phone and Nokia as being a driving force behind the increase.

“Since Nokia began shipping Windows Phone devices, the company has shipped a total of 20.3 million units and grown the footprint worldwide to include address multiple market segments,” read the report.

“Meanwhile, other vendors continue to offer Windows Phone devices, but mainly as an alternative to their signature Android devices.”

Google’s Android OS ranked first, accounting for 75 per cent of global smartphone shipments and Apple’s iOS platform ranked second, at 17.3 per cent.

But, despite falling from 23 per cent of the market share last year, the iPhone maker experienced its largest first quarter volume of iPhone shipments.