BlackBerry was the top-selling smartphone in the UK in December 2010, according to research firm, GfK. The company estimates that half a million Blackberrys were sold in the run up to Christmas, amounting to a 36 per cent share of the UK smartphone market, and 14.9 per cent of the total mobile handset market for the month.

BlackBerry was also the No.1 pre-pay smartphone brand in December 2010, with 51.1 per cent market share; and the No.1 contract/SIM-free brand, with 23.3 per cent market share.

“December was a record month for us, with around 11 BlackBerrys sold every minute,” says Stephen Bates, managing director UK at Blackberry-maker, Research In Motion. “The demand for BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) from the burgeoning youth market has spurred our growth in the pre-paid market, adding to the strength of overall sales in 2010. BBM experienced a 500 per cent increase in usage last year, and currently has over 33m users worldwide. The uptake of BlackBerry smartphones by young people in the UK has been driven by integrated applications such as BBM. It demonstrates that BlackBerry is the device of choice, not just for business users but also consumers.”

RIM has also released data on BlackBerry apps. There are now 16,000 apps on BlackBerry App World, with an average of over 2m apps are being downloaded every day, plus an active developer community of 300,000 registered app developers