The massive upsurge in smartphones
consumption is becoming monetization time for smartphones players such as
Apple, Samsung, Nokia and HTC this festive season across the world, but story
is not the same with Research in Motion, the makers of BlackBerry smart phones.
Amidst all upward going profit sheets, Research
in Motion (RIM), the Canadian technology giant
and maker of the BlackBerry, is looking at an uncertain future in the next 1-2
quarters. Its performance in the next two quarters is significant for the
company to regain the confidence of investors and smart phone users.
Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android has already
been gaining for the last 18 months, while Microsoft seems to be stabilizing
with around six percent marketshare in the global OS market. RIM’s BlackBerry
is facing an alarming situation with loss of 4.3 million users last year.
The alarming deterioration in RIM’s
market position got worse with three-day network
outages last week in Europe, the Middle East and Africa which spread to
India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
RIM announced its smart marketing strategy in
order to overhaul the glitch. RIM will offer free premium apps to
customers following service interruptions. Premium app worth more than US $100 will be offered free of charge to subscribers as
an expression of appreciation for their patience during the recent service
disruptions which will be available till December 31, 2011.
Moreover, the company’s financial performance
has already alarmed investors when RIM came-up with its second quarter
result. Net income fell by 58.7 percent to $329 million from $797 million
in the second quarter. Revenue fell by 10 percent to $4.2 billion.
The financial performance also prompted
BlackBerry investors to ask for a change in the company’s management and their
strategies.
Analysts believe that the BlackBerry is going
to suffer more as competition is going to be tougher with the advent of QNX
phones. Apple is almost ready with iPhone 5.
Nokia will be soon offering its first phone
that use Windows Phone 7 before the QNX-based BlackBerrys will appear. In
addition, Google’s Motorola purchase which might result in new products.
It seems RIM is readying with its roadmap for
overhauling the decline in profit as they are coming-up with applications like
BlackBeryy tag
where documents, web links and other information
can be shared with others by tapping their BlackBerry smartphones together.
RIM has 70 million subscribers worldwide. The
company has taken instant actions to immunize their constantly falling
marketshare globally. It launched 5 low-priced smartphones and also slashed the price of its PlayBook in India.
Not only India, the Midleast is an important market for RIM. BlackBerry
phones are the top selling smartphones in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates, the two biggest Arab economies. A
large part of the BlackBerry users in the UAE are aged below 18 years.
In the April-to-June period of 2010, 19
percent of the smartphones sold in the world were BlackBerrys, while a nearly
equal number, 18 percent, were from a variety of brands that use Google Android
software, according to Gartner.
There few factors also which will not let RIM to sink much. Young people in
developing countries like India keep using BlackBerrys. In fact, countries
outside North America account for 54 percent of RIM’s revenue. RIM can succeed
if they focus on emerging markets. US may not be the right choice as the Apple
4S debut already created history there. RIM can also wait for selecting the
right investor.
By Rashi Varshney
editor@telecomlead.com
