A leading analyst has predicted BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion, will ship around 10 million of its BlackBerry 10 smartphones during 2013, with the platform losing third spot in the smartphone wars to Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.
“2013 should be seen as relative success for both Microsoft and BlackBerry. For the end of the year, we expect there to be 45 million Windows Phone handsets in use, with BlackBerry 10 holding an installed base of close to 20 million. Microsoft will also have 5.5 million Windows-powered tablets to show for it,” says ABI Research Senior analyst Aapo Markkanen.
The forecast also predicts the global installed base of smartphones will total 1.4 billion by the end of 2013, with 57% running on Android and 21% on Apple’s iOS.
However, Apple is set to retain its dominance in the tablet market. With 268 million tablets expected to be in active use by the end of 2013, 62% will run iOS compared to just 28% on Android.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
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