There’s no shame in losing a market share battle with iOS and Android. Losing to Windows Phone? OK, so that’s not a good look. But losing to Tizen? That’s unprecedented… until now.
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New research from Strategy Analytics claims that Samsung’s Tizen mobile operating system has officially overtaken BlackBerry to become the No. 4 mobile platform in the world. Although Tizen has no presence here in the United States, Samsung has been pushing it aggressively in markets such as India where millions of people are connecting to the web via mobile phones for the first time.
While the idea of a Samsung-developed OS overtaking BlackBerry would have been shocking five years ago, we know today that BlackBerry is barely selling any phones anymore. Last quarter, BlackBerry recognized hardware revenue on just 800,000 smartphones sold on the quarter with an average selling price of $240 and it will soon release its first-ever Android phone in a last-ditch effort to keep its hardware business afloat. BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said that he will dump making hardware all together if he can’t make it profitable and the Android-powered Priv is widely viewed as the company’s last chance to score a hit.
At any rate, BlackBerry can at least hang its hat on the fact that it’s still thrashing Firefox OS… for now, at least.
