Canadian headquartered Research in Motion (RIM) has changed its company name to BlackBerry while also unveiling its next range of touch and keyboard enabled smartphones.
The BlackBerry 10 touch and keyboard handsets, respectively dubbed the Z10 and Q10, are reported to become available in markets such as South Africa by early March.
All major mobile operators in South Africa - Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and 8ta - are to sell the handsets.
Features of the phone include a central ‘Hub’ on devices such as the Z10, allowing users to access the likes of Twitter and email from a centralised point. BlackBerry has also announced that BBM has been evolved to feature video calling and screen share of media such as images and documents. The company has gone on to unveil an application called BlackBerry Remember and upgraded camera and picture editor features.
The firm has also announced that its app store BlackBerry World is to have music and movies. South Africa is to be among the first markets in the world to have the music offering.
BlackBerry products and services are available in 43 countries in Africa from 90 carrier partners. According to Informa Telecoms & Media, there were around 4 million connected smartphones in Nigeria mid-2012, nearly 2 million of which were BlackBerry smartphones.
GfK Retail and Technology says BlackBerry has been the number one smartphone vendor in SA for the past two years.
And GfK has gone on to say that in Nigeria, RIM has been the number one smartphone vendor in that country for over a year.
Analyst Thecla Mbongue, from Informa Telecom & Media, says the handset maker’s dominance in Africa’s smartphone market could continue, despite BlackBerry experiencing diminishing use in developed markets such as the US.
“We don’t see Apple as a big competitor considering the difference of price at entry level. Apart from in South Africa and Namibia, devices are rarely subsidised and sold by installment in Africa.
“Prepaid usage exceeds 95% in Africa, with prepaid users having to pay for the devices upfront. BlackBerry devices start from around $200 compared to $550 for Apple’s iPhone,” adds Mbongue.
Sadiq Malik, a lead strategy consultant for Broadband Gurus Network, says among the African markets the likes of BBM and the low internet connectivity cost with BIS has been a major pull for the device.
“If they change this model they will lose huge market share from its youth and price sensitive segments,” he says.
Malik adds that the launch of BlackBerry 10 may not change the company’s fortunes either.
“The launch of a souped up OS will create temporary hype but it cannot be sustained unless the company's senior get up to speed on the innovation cycle in smartphone technology and understanding how to control the profitability levers of a device ecosystem,” he adds.
Share