Canadian handset manufacturer BlackBerry Limited (BBRY) continues to lose U.S. market share in terms of operating system. Recently, the company slipped one notch to the fourth place with 3.1% share in fourth-quarter 2013 compared with 3.6% in the prior quarter.
As per the latest quarterly report produced by research firm comScore, both Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android and Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iOS platform continue to hold leading positions with 51.7% and 41.6% share, respectively, followed by Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Windows platform with an insignificant 3.2% share.
However, Apple holds the top spot in U.S. smartphones sales with 41.6% share followed by Korean manufacturer Samsung and LG’s 26.7% and 6.9%, respectively. On the other hand, BlackBerry generated only 0.13 million smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2014.
BlackBerry generates 28.5% of its revenues from the lucrative North American market which is mainly dominated by both Canada and the U.S. U.S. being the leading smartphone market with 160 million users in the reported quarter and a penetration rate of nearly 66.8%. Hence, losing market share at its second highest revenue producing region may further dent the BlackBerry’s top-line growth in the upcoming quarters.
Lately, BlackBerry has been shifting its focus from the North American market to emerging Southeast Asian markets. The company has already signed a 5-year agreement with the world's leading developer of electronic products and components, Foxconn, which will supply inventories to the company. The low-budget Z3 smartphone – the first outcome of the BlackBerry and Foxconn partnership – is to be launched next month.
BlackBerry currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
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