Canadians are flocking to buy smartphones running on Google’s Android platform, putting the operating system ahead of Apple and BlackBerry in the Canadian mobile market, a study from Ipsos-Reid shows.
And for the first time in the bi-annual survey, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry was no longer the top smartphone platform among Canadians, a sure sign that the Waterloo, Ont.-based company is struggling to retain customers even in its home country.
Phones running Android now account for 36 per cent of the Canadian market, compared to 29 per cent for Apple and 27 per cent for RIM’s BlackBerry, the survey found.
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In January of 2011, the BlackBerry was tops with 41 per cent market share, while Android was second with 26 per cent and Apple was third at 23 per cent. Android’s share has grown 10 percentage points, Apple has grown six percentage points, and RIM has declined 14 percentage points.
“In terms of smartphones, the big story in this [study] is the success of devices using an Android operating system,” Mary Beth Barbour, Senior Vice President with Ipsos Reid, said in a statement. “While Apple’s iPhone continues to make steady gains, Smartphones using the Android OS have been living up to the buzz making the most ground in the wake of RIM’s losses.”
The study notes much of Android’s success has been due to the popularity of Samsung’s smartphones, which run on Android and have doubled their share of the Canadian market in the past few years, to 18 per cent of all smartphones.
The study also looked at tablet market penetration and found a 400-per-cent growth rate for the devices. While only three per cent of Canadians had a tablet computer in January, 2011, around 15 per cent do today. Apple is the clear winner here, with 42 per cent of all tablets in Canada.
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Ipsos-Reid surveyed 40,000 Canadian adults in August, 2012, for the study, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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