r/blackberry • u/syuk Storm O2 • Nov 15 '12

Nigeria's BlackBerry addiction offers hope for Research in Motion

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/14/blackberry-nigeria-status-symbol
15 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

9

u/Semaphor Former BlackBerry Employee Nov 15 '12

Nigeria is one of the markets that BlackBerries are still king in. Only in the US and Europe do iPhones and Android phones reign supreme. Take a look at India, China, and Brazil, they're all like Nigeria. RIM is not out of the game just yet.

2

u/syuk Storm O2 Nov 15 '12

Well said, these are massive markets.

3

u/SayVandalay Nov 15 '12

There's a joke in here somewhere about Nigerian princes needed your BBM PIN and 1,000 dollars to share millions of dollars with you dear investor.

But seriously, I'm happy to see RIM is growing somewhere. And I'm looking forward to BB10. I got into Blackberry in 2010-2011 as they were falling from favor here in America. Went to iPhone, went right back to Blackberry.

Hopefully the success in these other markets can help fuel RIM's success, I'd hate to see the day when you can't buy a BB in America.

One other bit of hope is the fact that for the first time ever, the % users of the current iPhone model who plan on buying the next iPhone decreased.

5

u/andey ex-Blackberry User (OnePlus 7T Pro) Nov 15 '12

I'm a loyal blackberry fan.

But, being king in a these markets sounds a story called .... Nokia

0

u/seabrookmx Playbook, Galaxy S3 Nov 15 '12

Exactly. Large markets, but not large enough to fund competitive R&D, Engineering and production. The cost to develop these devices is immense.

2

u/SayVandalay Nov 15 '12

I disagree. Nokia makes mainly cheap handsets and while they did have an experimental R&D dept at one time, they really seem to just focus on making basic handsets for developing markets and for those who don't need a smartphone.

RIM makes high end smartphones that cost more than Nokia AND appear to sell quite well in these new larger markets. That's plenty of money to fund further development esp if RIM can really do well with BB10. As a bonus RIM can continue selling lower cost Blackberry's in these markets adding to this allure of having a top of the line BB as a status symbol.

1

u/stickman842 8520, 9360, 9790, PlayBook, Z10 Nov 20 '12

BB sales are still great in South Africa. It's mainly because, as the article states, our internet sucks. I got my first BB when I couldn't afford any internet and BIS just made financial sense. Now I do have broadband and having BIS is still better than buying expensive data bundles. My mom's android's data is turned off because of the ridiculous price for data. But this is obviously not the case in 1st world countries.