The once revered ‘BlackBerry Boys’ has now globally become a minority. We all know that Android and iOS own up more than 98 percent of the mobile market share right now. But where do BlackBerry OS and Windows Phone stand, you ask?
Turns out, Windows Phone on mobile has more users right now than BlackBerry. While Windows Phone still owns up negligible 0.3 percent share, BlackBerry’s status right now stands at 0 percent. Yes, you heard that right.
According to latest Gartner report, BlackBerry OS is running on just 200,000 devices, globally. And now that BlackBerry has switched its focus to Android for devices, we’ve definitely seen the last of the operating system, which has been running on devices that were once secure enough to used by the President of United States (POTUS) and Pentagon.
It pains to see that the makers of the iconic Curve series and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) called it quits without giving it a go. Their focus on enterprise business and software took the centre stage, which meant defocusing from what consumers were looking for.
Pricey devices coupled with an ecosystem that didn’t get support from app developers has been critical to why BlackBerry decided it’s time to outsource hardware manufacturing.
Just like Microsoft’s case with Windows Phone, BlackBerry failed to bridge the software-hardware nexus. Something that Apple has did for years, and lately something Google has done with the Pixel phone series.
BlackBerry tried its luck with Samsung for mobile security, which only panned out as a pilot measure before diving into Android for good. They also became generous by offering BBM and other BB apps to Android and iOS users free of cost.
Optiemus, a Delhi-based telecom enterprise is BlackBerry partner that will design, manufacture, sell, promote and provide customer support for BlackBerry-branded mobile devices that offer the full BlackBerry experience, including the trusted BlackBerry for Android secure software.
From the heydays of Curve, BBM, BlackBerry being the talk of the world, it has finally come to a point, where BlackBerry and the figure zero are being talked in the same breath.
Bad as it may sound, but it only goes to show how mighty and indispensable Android has become to the world, especially phones. And it will only go up from here, for BlackBerry, the brand you’ll always be part of the folklore and glorious tech history.
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