BlackBerry brand perception grows

The Canadian phonemaker's fortunes could be improving as the latest YouGov figures show the BlackBerry handset is slowly coming back into fashion and is gaining positive recognition.

For too long the Canadian firm's handsets have been the butt of the smartphone community's jokes, with some owners afraid to reveal to the public that they have a BlackBerry rather than a Samsung or Apple handset.

However, thanks in no small part to the launch of its new smartphones in January, BlackBerry's brand is growing once again.

According to the latest YouGov report, the proportion of BlackBerry owners planning to purchase a new BlackBerry phone within the next six months has jumped from 18 percent in 2012 to 43 percent. According to YouGov this is the most popular the company and its products have been in the US since September 2011.

It will have to go a long way to match iPhone users' loyalty (85% of owners will be buying another one within the next six months), but it is almost caught up with Samsung's Galaxy SIII (53% intend to get another one within the next six months).

As well as loyalty, the YouGov report measured brand perception and marketing buzz around the devices and awarded them what it calls a "BrandIndew Buzz Score".

This is calculated by asking participants "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?"

BlackBerry, which had been hovering around 0 since December, has risen to 7. Over the same period, the Samsung Galaxy brand jumped from 2 to 16 over the past 12 months.

Apple's iPhone brand reached its 2012 peak with a 38 Buzz score on October 1, when the iPhone 5 was launched but has since been falling and is currently at 17 points, only one ahead of Samsung.