RIM: We topped December smartphone sales chart

Maybe, but only just

The popularity of RIM's BlackBerry may be on the wane elsewhere but here in the world, it was the most popular smartphone platform for the second year running in the UK, RIM claimed today.

Citing over-the-counter sales data from European market watcher GfK, the embattbled smartphone maker said it accounted for, on average 27.7 per cent of the smartphones sold each month during 2011.

Of the smartphones sold in December 2011, 26.3 per cent of them carried the BlackBerry brand. The service has 8.5m subscribers here.

GfK holds its figures close to its chest and wouldn't provide sales data for the likes of Apple and Samsung, so we can't say precisely by how much RIM is leading the market. Nor would GfK confirm whether the sales data stated by RIM is correct.

However, November 2011 data from market watcher Kantar Worldpanel ComTech suggested that the BlackBerry OS held 22.5 per cent of the UK smartphone userbase, just ahead of iOS - 18.5 per cent - but behind Android - 49.9 per cent.

So RIM may indeed be the most popular smartphone platform, but only just. ®