BB CONNECTS WITH INDONESIA FIRST

Research In Motion (RIM) is breaking away from tradition by announcing the launch of its two new products – BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smart phones – in Jakarta, before the US and European markets. Indonesia will be the first country where the two new products will be available – on Friday – before reaching the global market. 

The Nation spoke to Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM, and Gregory Wade, the company’s regional managing director for Asia-Pacific (Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia). 

 

Why did you choose Indonesia to launch these new products?

Jim: Because it’s such an enormous and dynamic market. We’ve grown thousand per cent in the last two years in Indonesia. It’s a fantastic market and a dynamic application market. It’s the appropriate thing to do.

 

What is the key factor that makes RIM the leader in the market? 

Jim: The key thing for RIM, especially in Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Thailand, is that people love social connection, they love social communication. BBM [BlackBerry Messenger] and BBM Connected platform have been fantastic for that. Second, we created a segment of smart phones starting with the Gemini (BlackBerry Curve 8520) at the entry-level and moving up to the hi-end Bolds that were affordable for people. And then we worked very closely with the operators to create tier service plans. So we put those three together and created a very special differentiation strategy for the market.

 

What is your strategy to become No 1 in the Asia-Pacific market in the near future?

Greg: A big part of the drive and focus is in terms of the No 1 position. As you know, we hold the No 1 position for smart phones in Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia, and that provides us with a great sense of energy and purpose around which we can accomplish the future [goals].

What we’ve been able to do we’re looking to continue to replicate that drive and that’s around relevance – relevance of the BlackBerry platform to the local market, to the domestic market in which we operate. So, relevance is very important.  You extend that sense of relevance from the platform perspective, then to application development as an example and further to carriers and distributors in terms of how they represent and drive a value proposition for BlackBerry.

In Bangkok, we opened our first BlackBerry Lifestyle Store in Siam Paragon.  That’s another important part behind our relevance by increasing engagement. We are creating the best customer experience in the technology sector across the region.

 

When do you intend to regain the No 1 position in Thailand or in the Asia-Pacific?  Will it be in the next 2-3 years?

Greg: We are No 1 in smart phones in Thailand. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is the best-selling smart phone in Thailand [May 2011]. And when we take a look at a market like Vietnam for example – we’ve been in Vietnam just recently – I think there is no reason why we can’t be No 1 and that’s a big area of focus for us as well. And don’t forget that being No 1 is more than just the shipment. So much of it is about the connection and the engagement with customers, whether it is their intention to purchase, the engagement level with consumers, and the awareness in terms of the BlackBerry brand which is recommended to friends and family, and the ultimate intention to continue to purchase the BlackBerry product over the range of the entry-level up to premium level.

 

What will be the killer application or killer technology that you will be introducing in the market in the near future?

Jim: Among the very powerful things that we put out there is the BBM Connected platform so that you can create socially connected applications. This is entirely unique and this has been a huge investment area focused on Southeast Asia.

Greg: In Thailand, we have so many BBM fans and we have recently launched BBM Messenger campaigns and they went viral. And as Jim indicated that those connected apps are for BBM, apps and services that are built by local developers, tremendous innovators and entrepreneurs that they created for the local market. That’s huge. And that’s a big time differentiator for us today and in the future.  

 

What is your inspiration to create the PlayBook?

Jim: This is the next-generation of BBX platform.  We have an incredibly exciting future for BlackBerry – both in smart phone and tablet. You are going to see the PlayBook 2.0, a completely re-imagining computing and content experience and yet still familiar BlackBerry. It is a plan for the future in mobile computing architecture that’s more powerful, more open standard, more leverageable and anything else that’s in the marketplace.  

RIM has sold more than 165 billion BlackBerry smart phones to date, has over 70 million subscribers, more than 50 million active BBM users of which about 70 per cent are daily users, over a 1,000 billion BlackBerry App World download as well as over 400,000 registered app developers. 

 

The new BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smart phones, based on the BlackBerry 7 operating system (OS). The new smart phones offer slim and stylish designs, multimedia, productivity and social-connectivity features. The BlackBerry Bold 9790 is both powerful and compact, offering users a fully loaded, with a dual high-resolution touch display and a highly tactile keyboard. The BlackBerry Curve 9380 is the first-ever BlackBerry Curve smart phone with a touch display. It will be launched in Indonesia on Friday.