Canadians Loyalty to BlackBerry Vanishes as Android and Apple Gain Marketshare

Canadians have remained largely loyal to Research In Motion despite its recent follies. However, it appears that their allegiance to the Waterloo-based company is fading.

Overall smartphone ownership is up by 13% in the past six months in Canada, according to Ipsos Reid. Now, more than one-third of Canadians own smartphones—up from just one quarter in August 2011.

So there are lots of new smartphones in the hands and pockets of Canadians now. But which smartphones are they? Both Apple and Android are close to taking the crown in Canada: the iPhone grew its marketshare by 5%, up to 28% from 23% last year, while Android also gained plenty of ground, up from 26% to 31%.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry’s marketshare receded sharply from 41% to 33%.  Mary Beth Barbour, a senior vice-president with Ipsos, stated that consumer intentions to buy BlackBerry devices have declined “by nearly one-third” compared to last year. Samsung, on the other hand, saw interest spike 50%.

Take note, Thorsten Heins: patriotism has left the building.