MONTREAL -- A new study says BlackBerry is losing market share in most parts of the world, even in traditional strongholds such as South Africa and Indonesia.
U.K.-based Juniper Research says the Canadian smartphone maker will remain a global player and is expected to sell more smartphones this year than last, but that competition is increasing.
Meanwhile, Juniper says Android devices have overtaken sales of Apple's iPhone globally by a wide margin, helped by low prices in developing countries.
The research firm says if Apple releases a cheaper model of the iPhone, there could be more competition in some places, but that Android will continue to outsell the iPhone in regions where price is a major factor.
Juniper says Android, with both high and low prices for its devices, will almost certainly be the biggest player for a considerable time.
Canada's BlackBerry has been losing market share in recent years to both Apple and the Android operating system, used in Samsung, HTC devices among others. And the first-round of Blackberry 10 phones, the Z10 and Q10, have struggled against the latest iPhone and Android devices.
"Even in traditional strongholds such as South Africa and Indonesia, competition is increasing as other smartphone vendors attempt to seek out new growth areas," said Michael Wiggins, author of the Juniper report released on Monday.
"So although BlackBerry will continue to be a global player, being represented in most markets, they will experience a diminishing market share," Wiggins said in an email.
However, Juniper is predicting that BlackBerry will sell more smartphones this year than last year.
BlackBerry recently announced that it had launched a review of "strategic alternatives," a move that could potentially result in the sale of the company to a strategic buyer that could see it taken private.
The Waterloo, Ont., company has also just launched the BlackBerry Q5 in Canada. The Q5 runs the company's new operating system, a follow-up to the original Q10 keyboard model and the Z10 touch-screen model that were introduced earlier this year.
The Q5 phone was originally targeted at Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America, but the company recently decided to add Canada to the list.
BlackBerry has also announced it plans to launch another new device that will run the company's old operating system -- for Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
The Juniper report said that Apple and Samsung shipments will reach just under 800 million in 2018, which is 17 per cent more than the global shipments from all smartphone sellers in 2012, which stood at 671 million. The report said Apple and Samsung will dominate the market in the period leading up to 2018.
