Canada Reaches 10 Million Smartphone Users

Sites include Apple.com , RIM.com . Published on April 10th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

The US has the largest concentration of smartphone users in the world, but that position is now under threat—from Canada. A survey conducted by eMarketer found that Canada now has over 10 million smartphone users. And although this number is still small in proportion to Canada’s population size, eMarketer predicts that in a few years Canada will rival the US in terms of overall smartphone use.

According to the study, by 2016 Canada will have 46.6% smartphone penetration in its overall population while the US will have just 47%. This suggests of course that growth of smartphone use will taper off in the next few years enough for Canada to catch up.

In terms of actual smartphone use by type, Apple’s iPhone has outsold Blackberry in Canada for the first time. According to eMarketer, Canadians bought 800,000 more iPhones than Blackberries in 2011. RIM, the manufacturer of the Blackberry brand of smartphones is actually Canada-based, so from an earnings and country-loyalty perspective, the difference in sales is actually quite significant.

All in all though, growth in smartphone penetration is good news for phone manufactures, for even if RIM doesn’t sell lots of Blackberries, it still represents an opportunity to sell to a market.

Are you surprised that smartphones are not more popular in Canada? Let us know using the comments below.