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Surveying the saviors: A look at BlackBerry 10 and Lumia sales so far

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:41PM EST
BlackBerry 10 Lumia Smartphone Sales

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BlackBerry posted dismal fiscal first-quarter results on Friday that sent its stock plummeting more than 25%. The May quarter marked the first full quarter of BlackBerry Z10 sales and the quarter in which the Q10 launched, but BlackBerry still shed 4 million net subscribers. Nokia has fared a bit better in recent quarters, but its new Lumia phones are still struggling to gain traction in a market dominated by Android and the iPhone. BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone are intended to be BlackBerry and Nokia’s respective saviors, but this clash of the bantams is slow going thus far. In an effort to illustrate the companies’ progress to date, mobile analyst Benedict Evans charted BlackBerry 10 and Lumia shipments to date compared to legacy platforms.

As can be seen on the charts above, Nokia is clearly much further along in the transition from its old Symbian platform to Windows Phone. The bad news, however, is that Lumia shipments currently total only about a quarter of Nokia’s smartphone shipments three years ago. BlackBerry isn’t quite as far along with BB10, having shipped just 2.7 million BlackBerry 10 smartphones last quarter compared to a quarterly peak of about 14 million units just two years ago.

Both companies face a steep uphill climb as they struggle to compete with Apple, which now has about 400 million active iOS devices in use, and Google, which has activated more than 800 million Android devices to date.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.