BlackBerry Banking on Apps

Bidding to
prove the statement erroneous often made by communication experts
that BlackBerry is passé, RIM recently came up with the
BlackBerry 7
OS with much gusto. The company unveiled a new look by adding touch
and type capabilities and above all, upgrading the hardware. Even as
the new handsets started to make their inroads into the market and go
for user experience reviews, the launch shortly followed the sad
disruption of BlackBerry services across South East Asia, US, and
Europe with the company not even communicating the same to its
customers on a priority basis, either directly or through its
operator tie-ups. In this backdrop, the smartphone giant unleashed
the integration factor for its apps, besides enhancing its product
line. BlackBerry apps have for long been a matter of discussion for
usability, compatibility as well as efficiency with the Android
variety making headway into the global market, and Mango poised to
register the highest growth over the next 4 years. As communications
experts began to rely on the Apple iPhone and projected a healthy
growth for the Android market, BlackBerry suffered a backlog compared
to these platforms. Although, apps for Android started much late
compared to BlackBerry services, this October, the Android market
reached the 50,000 mark for its apps (source: Research2Guidance)
while for BlackBerry, the figure is way behind.

Also,
according to
IDC, the worldwide smart phone market is forecast to grow 55% y-o-y
in 2011 as a growing number of users turn in their feature phones for
more advanced devices. According to the Worldwide Quarterly Mobile
Phone Tracker, vendors will ship a total of 472 mn smartphones in
2011 compared to roughly 305 mn units shipped in 2010. That figure
will nearly double to 982 mn by the end of 2015. In this case,
BlackBerry's marketshare, will however decline marginally, while
Android is projected to grow to more than 40% of the market in the
second half of 2011. Although key BlackBerry officials in India said
that these 2 platforms cannot be compared given the specialty and the
product segments, it is quite true that Android as well as the iPhone
have eaten into the global marketshare of BlackBerry. However, the
market and product strategy that RIM has come up with underlines a
threat in the smartphone space, with RIM even going to the extent of
doing away with its 'marque QWERTY keypad' in some models
replacing it with touch only. In this endeavor and addressing the
apps segment, BlackBerry is now allowing apps integration with its BB
Messenger service, conventionally held to be one of the most secure
ways of 'chatting' and 'information sharing.'

“Recently,
we
have allowed the apps integration with the renowned BB Messenger 6
which is registering a steady growth globally. This would enable
users to play games, share files and do numerous other activities
besides the regular functionality,” said Advait Vaidya, head,
product management, India, RIM. However, the new face of BlackBerry
is only being limited to new users as BlackBerry OS 7 requires
advanced hardware configuration and memory which its existing or
older devices do not offer. “Unfortunately, BlackBerry 7 is
compatible only with the latest smartphone series due to its higher
hardware requirements,” Vaidya said. Focussing over the new apps as
one of the key drivers for the projected growth of BlackBerry in
India, Vaidya elaborated, “OS 7 features enhanced apps with the
latest offerings. From connecting with friends through FourSqaure to
the BBM 6 integration with ScoreMobile, the new range of Apps
features Wikitud World Browser which allows one to discover the
surroundings in augmented reality.” Also, comics, news apps, and
several games are the latest to feature on OS 7. Although RIM seems
confident enough to penetrate further deep into the market by
maintaining the pace through product enhancement, OS upgrades and
enhancing its apps, the smartphone major is seemingly enhancing its
BlackBerry Entrprise Services as well. Besides, for strengthening its
apps, RIM is encouraging the student community to develop or come up
with newer ideas for the apps under the BASE program.

Over the
consumer segment front in the enterprise solutions segment, RIM is
focusing over BFSI, healthcare and partly, the government segment as
its prime users. Already, the Bengaluru and Pune police are using the
BES services but RIM is unwilling to divulge more details about its
other deployments and solutions for the government segment. Even
though the UK incident and the ongoing rage with the Government of
India continues to remain afresh in the consumer's minds, RIM is
expected to come up with solutions shortly. “Even the government
has realised that the encryption factor and the points of discontent
are the same with any other mobility services. I am sure that we will
come up with solutions shortly,” Lalvani added. Also, BlackBerry
Maps are another key factors for discontent among users. The
inability of RIM to process the maps is augmented by the
non-availability of major mapping apps in the App World. As a clear
discrimination, BB Maps is available in the USA, West Europe, most
parts of South East Asia, parts of Africa and Australia, but major
countries like PRC, India and others are excluded.

However, RIM
hasn't issued the cause for the inability to process the mapping
solutions in these countries including India, but Lalvani declared
that RIM is in talks with Bing for developing the mapping solution in
India. With the new OS 7 on the fly following the new launches in
Android and iPhone segment alongwith Microsoft coming anew with
Mango, BlackBerry seems optimistic about its Indian plans hoping to
garner as much marketshare as possible and is planning to enter the
upcountry market shortly with tailored products and options.