BlackBerry is making a last ditch effort to survive in the smartphone market

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BlackBerry has long stopped being the go-to name in mobile devices, but the beleaguered company is making what is likely its last stand to be a major player in the smartphone market.

The company plans to release three new smartphones beginning later this year, according to VentureBeat. BlackBerry has struggled to compete with Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems for a few years now, and the company's latest device, the Priv, has achieved mediocre sales to date.

The three new devices are codenamed Neon, Argon, and Mercury and will target both the consumer and enterprise markets. Each of the new phones will retail at a cheaper price than the Priv.

The Neon will be the first phone released later this month or next month. The device has a full touch screen and should retail at a comparatively low price point.

The Argon will be the most advanced of the three new phones and will be similar to the Priv in features. It will launch sometime in October and will target the more hardcore BlackBerry fans, though it will still be less expensive than the Priv.

The Mercury will be the only one of the three phones with a full QWERTY keyboard, just like the Priv, but the keyboard will not be concealable.

The three devices will be a test to determine if Blackberry can survive in the hardware manufacturing business. The company hopes the cheaper price points on these phones will let them fare better on the market than the Priv.

BlackBerry's hardware sales have struggled mightily in the past few years, and the company plans to transfer its efforts toward providing software and security solutions for the enterprise as a result. But this segment has not yet compensated for the declining handset sales.

BlackBerry certainly has an uphill battle ahead of it, as the global smartphone market is expected to slow considerably over the next few years. Despite a record-setting holiday quarter, 2015 was likely the last year of double-digit growth for smartphone shipments.

Mature markets were at the heart of this year's deceleration. Adoption has reached new highs in key markets in the United States, Europe, and China. The pool of first-time buyers in these countries is shrinking rapidly, and sales are now primarily coming from phone upgrades.

Meanwhile, emerging markets will continue to see robust shipment growth. India and Indonesia, in particular, will help fuel a large share of the shipments growth within the global smartphone market over the next few years.

Will McKitterick, senior research analyst at BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on smartphones by country that forecasts the market through 2021 to reflect slower, stabilizing growth in the long term.

Here are some key points from the report:

The global smartphone market is still growing at a steady pace due to more widespread adoption in emerging markets. We estimate the global market will hit about 2.1 billion units shipped in 2021.

Shipments growth over the past few years has been driven by the falling price of smartphones, which has made handsets more accessible in emerging markets. The average selling price of a smartphone in India nearly halved between 2010 and 2015.

With relatively low smartphone penetration, we forecast Indian smartphone shipments to grow rapidly over the next five years. Nevertheless, India has a long way to go before it surpasses China as the world's leading market for smart handsets. India is estimated to account for roughly 10% of the global smartphone market in 2016, considerably less than China's 30% share.

The global platform wars are over, even as smartphone adoption continues to rise across various markets worldwide. Android and iOS are estimated to account for 97.3% of global platform market share in 2015, compared to 96.3% last year.

Apple closed the year with another strong quarter on the back of its iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus launches. Still, the vendor saw a slight decline in YoY growth of its share of the market in the face of stiff competition from Samsung and Chinese vendors such as Huawei.

In full, the report:

Forecasts global smartphone shipments through 2021.

Explores why India is the next high-growth smartphone market.

Breaks down the global smartphone platform wars.

Discusses smartphone vendor performance market share.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you've given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the smartphone market.

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