Things for BlackBerry continue to spiral downward, as the smartphone maker has officially been overtaken by Windows Phone to become the fourth most popular smartphone OS in the world. According to Gartner research, BlackBerry's worldwide market share fell from 5.2 percent in the second quarter of 2012 to just 2.7 percent in the second quarter of 2013, with the company shipping just 6.1 million units. Windows Phone, meanwhile, saw its market share rise from 2.6 percent to 3.3 percent.
BlackBerry's new market position is an important milestone, as CEO Thorsten Heins had previously stated that he was determined to put the company in third place behind Android and Apple. Earlier this week, BlackBerry's board of directors announced that it has formed a special committee to determine if the company should partner with another corporate entity or sell itself outright. BlackBerry's new BB 10 devices, which include the touch screen-enabled Z10 and QWERTY keyboard-equipped Q10, have simply not sold as well as the company hoped.
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There could still be hope for BlackBerry waiting in the wings in the form of the Z30 smartphone. That device is rumored to sport a 5-inch display, though its reported 720p resolution won't be nearly as high as the 1080p screens found on Samsung's Galaxy S4 or HTC's One. The Z30 also allegedly packs a dual-core processor, rather than a quad-core chip.
There are multiple issues that have led to BlackBerry's current situation, but the most obvious is the fact that the company was unable to keep pace with Samsung and Apple. And with the help of Nokia's Lumia line, BlackBerry is now chasing Windows Phone, too.
