BlackBerry’s share of the global smartphone market has seen far better days and it’s going to be getting even smaller, falling to around 0.3% of the market by 2018 according to market research firm IDC.

Bloomberg reports that shipments of phones from the Canadian outfit are expected to fall by nearly 50%, amounting to 9.7 million units, citing IDC for the numbers. The 0.3% figure for 2018 sounds bad but BlackBerry’s slide will be starting this year – the company is expected to account for only 0.8% of global shipments in 2014.

BlackBerry has been moving away from dependence on smartphones of late, trying to place more emphasis on enterprise and their operating system/software offerings.

The IDC said “The question of whether BlackBerry can survive continues to surface. And with expectations that share will fall below 1 percent in 2014, the only way the company will be viable is likely through a niche approach based on its security assets.”

Source: Bloomberg