BlackBerry 'best-selling smartphone of 2011'

BlackBerry handsets were the best-selling smartphones in the UK across 2011, it has been claimed.

Research in Motion has presented data that showed 9.5 million subscribers used the devices in this time, while the phone averaged 27.7 per cent market share during the 12-month period, the Daily Telegraph reports.

In addition, the make saw marked growth around the world, with global subscriber numbers escalating by 35 per cent year-on-year to reach 75 million in December.

Stephen Bates, managing director for the UK and Ireland at BlackBerry - which was introduced in 1999 - said: "We've moved the market up by around 40 per cent by offering a proposition people can see the value in."

Despite the positive findings, the manufacturer was hit by a number of setbacks in 2011.

These included its stock price plummeting by 75 per cent, a number of release deadlines being missed and its co-founders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis moving over to allow a new chief executive officer take charge.