BlackBerry relies on Asian markets

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

BLACKBERRY manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) is banking on Asian markets like the Philippines for growth as it faces intense competition in the mobile smartphone segment.

A top official said the Philippines has a huge potential in the smartphone market because of its growing population and its status as the text messaging capital in the world.

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“We are hoping to make the country also the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) capital of the world,” John Leung, RIM Blackberry director for Singapore, Philippines and Emerging Markets said in an interview last Friday.

He told reporters that despite the tough competition in the mobile market, BlackBerry will still continue to strive to deliver quality service in communication and
collaboration.

Messaging offer

Leung pointed out the use of BBM in the country as a factor that would help them entice other mobile phone users to shift to BlackBerry. He said that the company has the “best proposition in terms of messaging.”

BBM is a proprietary instant messenger application included in BlackBerry devices.

Aside from offering text-based instant messages, BBM also allows users to send pictures, voice notes, files, map locations and a wide selection of emoticons over the BlackBerry network.

According to Leung, there are about 50 million BlackBerry users globally and 40 million of these users use BBM, which spares them from texting charges.

To sustain its leadership in the mobile smartphone segment, Leung said the company will continue educating the market on the phone’s features and work closely with the country’s telecommunication firms to offer attractive plans to Filipinos.

He said the company is looking at offering packages in both pre-paid and post-paid segments such as daily, weekly and monthly BlackBerry plans. Leung said the offerings will help them penetrate the mainstream market.

In a survey conducted by GfK Philippines, the BlackBerry Curve came out as the top-selling selling smartphone in the Philippines in April to May this year. BlackBerry Curve is now priced at P10,000.

Leung said they will also be offering new models in the market that offer improved tools in collaboration and communication such as the BlackBerry Pearl 9105 and BlackBerry Bold 9900, among others.

The company will also be introducing soon the BlackBerry PlayBook, its answer to Apple’s iconic iPad.

More competitive

In the first quarter of 2011, RIM announced that it would transition its BlackBerry portfolio to the QNX platform in 2012. According to reports, this would make its smartphones more competitive in graphics, performance and touch and unify the firm’s tablet and smartphone experience.

According to the International Data Corp. (IDC), the worldwide smartphone market grew by 79.7 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2011, driven by a combination of vendors releasing highly-anticipated models, widespread availability of older smartphones at lower prices and sustained end-user demand.

IDC’s worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker said smartphone vendors shipped a total of 99.6 million units in the first quarter, nearly double the 55.4 million units in the first quarter of 2010.

IDC also estimates that RIM shipped 1.5 million BlackBerry devices to Asia in the first quarter of this year. Since 2004, the firm has sold 8.5 million units in the region.