BlackBerry's fall from grace, in one chart
It was a formality at this point, but BlackBerry's share of the smartphone market has officially fallen to 0.0%. According to research firm Gartner, just under 208,000 devices running BlackBerry OS were sold in the fourth quarter of 2016, bringing the once-leading smartphone brand to a position of near-total irrelevance.
This chart from Statista shows just how deep the drop has been. Again, it's not a surprise - BlackBerry announced its exit from the hardware business last September after years of the writing being on the wall. Instead, it's now focused on software like its QNX operating system for connected cars.
This doesn't mean BlackBerry phones are gone for good though: Chinese manufacturer TCL is trying to revive the brand with new Android phones that keep the old-school aesthetic. One of those, the "Mercury," comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, and is expected to be showcased at this month's Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.
