BlackBerry: BB10 is stealing customers away from rivals
More than half of new BlackBerry Z10 customers are coming from a different operating system. But which one?
- SABEW Best in Business 2011 Award for Breaking News Coverage, Eddie Award in 2020 for 5G coverage, runner-up National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award for culture analysis.
It's not just the BlackBerry faithful signing up for the
More than half of the customers snapping up a Z10 -- 55 percent -- are coming from a different platform, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said during a conference call today.
Heins wouldn't go into detail about the breakdown of where these customers were coming from, but it's an encouraging sign that the Z10 was enticing enough that people were willing to switch over to the new device. It's one sign of progress for a company badly in need of a home run.
"We're pretty excited by the stats we're getting from the market," Heins said. "It's a strong testament to the strength of the product and differentiating elements."
Looking at the different operating systems out there, it's tough to see where the market share is coming from. Given the early launch in the U.K., Symbian might be the loser here, as its market presence continues to rapidly deteriorate. With Android and iOS still gaining share, it's tough to see consumers jumping from that platform to BlackBerry 10. Windows Phone is another candidate, but its presence is too small to really cede meaningful market share at this point. Users could be upgrading from basic phones, which run rudimentary operating systems.
Regardless, it marks a good start for BlackBerry. The company will likely see the mix of BlackBerry 10 customers shift back to its own base once the
"We look forward to launching that globally," he said. "It will yield another good opportunity to increase units and revenue."
