BlackBerry maker deepens presence in Nigeria
Research
in Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, is raising its stakes in
Nigeria’s mobile broadband device market valued at N245 billion with the
establishment of a local office as well as the expansion of its retail and
distribution network. The move, according
to the phone manufacturer on Tuesday, marks the expansion of RIM’s footprint in
Africa from its headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, and further
underlines the strategic importance of the Nigerian market in RIM’s global
business strategy. Robert Bose, managing director for Middle East and Africa,
RIM, told journalists at a media briefing in Lagos, Tuesday, that BlackBerry
was presently the highest selling smartphone in Nigeria and South Africa,
further revealing that BlackBerry devices are currently been sold in about 300
retail stores nationwide.
This robust retail
presence, according to Bose, will assist customers get the most out of their
BlackBerry smartphones. “We are pleased to cement our physical presence with
local staff, establishment of a new legal entity and work with local business
partners to expand our retail and customer care across Nigeria.”
In addition, RIM
said it is providing software upgrade stations in 60 more retail stores
nationwide. The smartphone company also disclosed plans to introduce
in-warranty repair and after-sales support in retail stores located in Lagos,
Abuja and Port Harcourt.
To further deepen
its presence in Nigeria, RIM noted that it had signed up Yaba College of
Education into its academic programme which enables colleges and universities
globally offer courses in developing solutions for the BlackBerry platform.
“There are several
universities that are making use of free tools and content that can be used in
terms of BlackBerry app development. We are now looking at how we can roll out
the BlackBerry academic programme to as many universities in Nigeria as
possible. We want to ensure that we have a consistent stream of young
developers coming through that would enable us develop and maintain locally
relevant applications and content”, Waldi Wepener, regional director at RIM
told BusinessDay on Tuesday.
The Canadian phone
maker has continued to record sterling performances in Nigeria, becoming the
highest selling smartphone. According to research firm, Informa Telecom &
Media, there are 4 million connected smartphones in the country at the moment,
two million of them been BlackBerry devices.
However, a new
trend is emerging in Nigeria’s highly competitive handset market. Global phone
manufacturers are increasingly focusing on the Nigerian market. Only recently,
Apple incorporated with reported revenue of $108 billion in 2011 announced its
official entry into Nigeria.
What is the
rationale behind this new focus on Nigeria? Industry analysts say perhaps
credit losses, write-down and financial woes which haunt the financial capitals
of the world are compelling phone makers to pay more attention to emerging
markets such as Nigeria to make up for dwindling fortunes in advanced
economies.
In recent times,
the BlackBerry maker has continued to lose market share to other players such
Samsung. Wepener pointed out that the loss of market share was simply due to
the technology shift to full touch interface.
“We are currently
the number one smartphone in Africa and in Nigeria. We are trying to maximise
global market share with in-roads into Nigeria”. According to him, RIM was
already putting finishing touches to its BB 10 platform which would put the
company in a prime position to re-capture market share. The platform is
expected to be launched next year.
Wepener noted that
RIM is strengthening relationships with telecom operators to enable them deepen
their share of revenue from data service provisioning.
No comments:
Post a Comment