According to a report by eMarketer, smartphone users in Canada will surpass 10 million in 2012, while the penetration rate will grow closer to 50%.

eMarketer also predicts that Canada will rival the U.S. in smartphone users, in regards to percentages against all mobile phone users in both countries in 2012, at 46% vs. 47.7% respectively.

Still, regarding total smartphone users by country, Canada has far less, proportionate to its population. In 2012, Canada will have 10.5 million smartphone users, and the U.S. will have 115.8 million. eMarketer predicts that Canada will have 16.4 million smartphone users by 2016.

In a recent report, Apple’s iPhone has finally gotten the upper hand on the Ontario-based RIM’s Blackberry in Canada – Canadians bought 800,000 more iPhones than Blackberrys in 2011. This might seem like a small number, but not in the Canadian market – 2.85 million vs. 2.08 million in sales is a wide margin in a country with a population of 34 million.