RIM has recently decided to setup a server in India in order to improve security agencies snoop in its aspirational Blackberry Messenger services. India government has threaten the company for three years but now the company has agreed to setup a local server in India. On December 28 last year, RIM announced to cut the price of its playbook Tablet by almost of half, and the reportedly, over 12,000 Tablets were sold within four-days. At present, RIM seems very aggressive about its business in India, and the company has decided to increase its footprint to 160 cities—besides launching its new device and latest BlackBerry OS 10 later this year.
Presently, BlackBerry has marked it presence in 80 cities in India, and the company wants to burgeon the demand of its Smartphone in this market. The company’s head in India has stated that the company wants to double its presence in India this year. However, it’s well known that RIM has started its operation in India in 2004, and now, it has marked its incredible presence in more than 4,000 retails in the country. It has currently three distributors–Redington India, Brightpoint India, and Ingram Inc– in India.
It’s reportedly stated that RIM shipped about 14.1 million Smartphone and nearly 150,000 BlackBerry PlayBook Tablets in Q3 FY12. Meanwhile, the company succeeded to grow up its customers more than 75 million worldwide last year—up by 35% year-over-year.
The Head of RIM India—Sunil Dutt—said, “BlackBerry devices continue to popular, especially the BlackBerry Messenger services. We would continue to bring out newer devices. The broad areas of focus are innovation, building brand association, effective go-to market channels, and customer satisfaction. The company is also upbeat on its application stores.”
The company’s portfolio—including the Curve, Bold and Torch, and CDMA Smartphone like BlackBerry Style 9670, BlackBerry Curve 8350, BlackBerry Tour 9630, and BlackBerry curve 9350—will be available in India.
The intrusion of Android devices like Samsung galaxy in India has eaten BlackBerry’s major market share last year. However, the company endeavored to launch lineups of initiatives including handsets, touch phones, and India-specific apps, but, it went to futile. Undoubtedly, Samsung and Nokia have grabbed the premium position and it’s very hard for RIM to conk these giants. RIM has lost its most of its Smartphone’s share worldwide in the last couples of years as Android came into the market—it’s estimated that every second Smartphone sold globally possesses Android mobile OS.
At the end of August 27 last year, RIM reported a decline in its income nearly by 59% ($329 million), meanwhile, the stock value of the company had dropped by 67%. Shockingly in December last year, the company’s total value ($7.04 billion) slipped less than the company’s actual worth ($7.08 billion). Undoubtedly, the company declined to its worst position last year, and the company was seeking for the potential merger.
RIM’s head in India has declined to say anything about the market share lose in India, but he only said that the company has managed to lure the Indian youth. He also added that the global issues against RIM couldn’t make any impact on the company’s business in India.
Presently, Samsung and Nokia are two biggest rivals for the company in India. Android-based Samsung Galaxy lineup has made implausible success in India in Q4 (calendar) last year. The world largest handset manufacturer—Nokia—has recently introduced its Windows phone based Smartphone in India. However, RIM’s low-price strategy for PlayBook Tablet could prove runaway hit for the device. Anyway, the company’s new strategy to double its presence and setting up of local server in India is highly praiseworthy. There are more than 800 million mobile customers in India and the country is expecting to expand its 3G services and 4G launches this year. The country has reportedly reached 10 million Smartphones shipment in just first 11 eleven months last year—besides 1 million shipment in November 2011. The Smartphone vendors are currently looking for the 3G market in India—because of 15.5 million shipments of 3G phones in just first eleven months in CY2011, and only November contributed 8.9% in total 3G phones shipment. Therefore, there’s great opportunity for RIM to contend its rival in the Indian mobile market, and I think, the aggressiveness of the company is quite rationale this time.
