BlackBerry vs iPhone vs Android in South Africa

BlackBerry has a very strong presence in South Africa which is driven by partly by affordable contract packages and a growing awareness of the brand in the country.

RIM Africa MD Deon Liebenberg and his team in South Africa have effectively boosted BlackBerry uptake by making it a desirable brand among a variety of segments within society.

RIM South Africa is however reluctant to release sales figures or divulge the number of active BlackBerry devices in the country, but recent statistics from Vodacom provide a good idea of the smartphone market share in South Africa.

Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys recently revealed that Vodacom has around 1-million BlackBerry devices on its network.  This is far more than the number of  Vodacom subscribers with iPhones, which sits at 150,000, and Android devices currently at around 100,000.

Uys added that Vodacom is the biggest seller of BlackBerry devices in the Vodafone group which includes operations from many major economies.

It is understood that 66% of all BlackBerry devices sold in South Africa are via Vodacom, which means that there may well be around 1.5-million BlackBerry devices throughout the country.

The iPhone, in comparison, is unlikely to exceed 200,000 active users in South Africa, showing the power of the affordable BlackBerry ecosystem (which includes unlimited internet and BBM for R59).

Android’s market share is expected to increase significantly over the next few years as low cost Android smartphones start to hit local shores.

Vodacom is set to launch a full touch screen Android device which is expected to sell in the R700 – R800 price range, an initiative likely to unlock the smartphone revolution for a far wider audience.

BlackBerry is also well positioned for future growth.  World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck recently revealed that 24 percent of consumers claim that their next handset will be a BlackBerry, well above the 3 percent for Apple’s iPhone.

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