BlackBerry reigns supreme in South African early adopter market
A new early adopter survey conducted by research firm BMI-T revealed that BlackBerry remains the most popular smartphone among early adopters in South Africa, but it is facing stiff competition from Samsung.
According to the survey, which was completed by 842 teach savvy individuals, BlackBerry reigns supreme in South African early adopter market with 28% market share, followed by Samsung on 25% and Nokia on 17%.
However, the landscape is changing fast. Over the last year BlackBerry’s market share grew by 4% while Samsung increased its market share by 13%.
“It has been a fantastic year for Samsung, increasing from a share of 12% last year among the early adopters to 25% this year,” said Ryan Smit, senior analyst at BMI-T.
“BlackBerry’s share increased slightly from 24% last year to 28% this year, which is interesting given the negativity surrounding RIM in the last year.”
Surprisingly, Apple‘s iPhone was one of the biggest losers with its market share declining from 15% in 2011 to the current 8%. This may be partly due to the success of the Samsung Galaxy S3.
“What is also interesting is that Apple’s share has actually decreased from 16% last year to 11% this year, some of which has surely gone to Samsung,” said Smit.
“Nokia is down from 23% to 17% of the early adopters, but will be hoping to make up some of that share with the introduction of its Lumia 920 and 820 devices into the market.”
