SA’s Blackberry success
Research in Motion Regional Director for Sub Saharan Africa, Deon Liebenberg believes that Africa has been a “major engine of growth” for the company as a whole. This is in response to Fortune magazine’s recent announcement that RIM is currently the fastest growing company in the world taking the number 1 spot.
The Canadian company, which previously did not featured on the top one hundred list, reported that profits in the past three years have grown 84% while its revenues increased by 77%. In comparison one of their major competitors, Apple, was only 39th on the list.
Liebenberg believes that Africa is well placed “to be a major driver of growth for the smartphone market due to low Internet and smartphone penetration throughout the continent.”
“Smartphone adoption is rapidly increasing throughout South Africa. People from all walks of life – including business professionals and politicians – rely on smartphones to stay on top off their business and personal lives. As RIM pioneered the smartphone market and continues to lead it, we have been able to capitalise on this trend,” he added.
In the first quarter of 2009 RIM officially overtook Apple as the best selling smartphone brand in the US. According to NPD results the company held three of the top five positions in smartphone sales.
Despite selling over one million units in the first weekend, the Apple iPhone 3GS is yet to eclipse the BlackBerry range according to sales results.
“RIM has more than 28.5 million global BlackBerry subscriber accounts. Over 50% of our BlackBerry subscriber base is non-enterprise,” said Liebenberg, who believes that the future looks bright for BlackBerry in South Africa.
“The BlackBerry brand has enjoyed robust growth across the business and consumer markets in Sub Sahara Africa over the past two years. We have a strong product and service offering for business users and consumers, and great partners – the combination of these factors has helped to spur uptake of our products in South Africa and make us a leading smartphone brand.”
Locally the BlackBerry brand has proven popular amongst consumers. Device availability across all networks and the ability to offer the only flat rated data plan in the country has proven to be a winning combination with SA subscribers.
Despite this, manufacturers such as Apple, Nokia and HTC still remain strong competitors in the local market.
Liebenberg could not reveal RIM’s current local market share. He did however add that the numbers are in keeping with international market trends.
Blackberry in South Africa – comments and views
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