RIM to treble reach to 250 Indian cities
25 Jun 2012 1:49 AM GMT
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion [RIM]'s Indian arm aims to treble its footprint in the country to 250 cities and outgrow the industry's projected 40 per cent growth rate by the end of this fiscal.
‘When I took over last December, we were present in 40 top cities, which rose to 80 by the end of March. We will take this to 250 locations by the end of this fiscal,’ RIM India managing director Sunil Dutt said.
Despite its Canadian parent RIM losing grip on the market of late to more agile players like Samsung and Apple, the company over the weekend launched BlackBerry Porsche P-9981 as part of its strategy to grow fast in this market.
RIM India has been garnering market share here with its pie going up by two notches last fiscal. As of March 2012, RIM India had 15 per cent market share, up from 13 per cent in FY2010-11.
However in terms of the pecking order, it stands third behind Nokia and Samsung which have 38 and 28 per cent share, respectively as of March 2012, according to data from industry research agency CyberMedia Research.
Dutt, who joined RIM India last December from HP India, is confident of doing better this year with a target of outgrowing the industry growth which is projected to be 40 per cent. However, this is not even half the rate at which the smartphone segment grew in 2011, when it logged 87 per cent.
‘The domestic smartphone market is growing at over 40 per cent this year, after clipping at 87 per cent last year. I am sure we will be able to grow much faster than the industry rate,’ Dutt said. He refused to put a number citing its parent company's silent period.
Overall there are 18.3 million BlackBerry users in the country, out of which 90 per cent are BlackBerry Messenger users, he said.
When asked about where does India stand in terms of the parent company's global strategy, Dutt said, ‘This is a very important market for them globally and within the Asia- Pacific region, India is one of the top three markets.’
Though he refused to specify the ranking of the country among the three, it is reliably learnt that India is No. 3 after Indonesia and China.
It can be noted that the Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing smartphone market with the Q1 of 2012 shipment touching 37.3 million. Global smartphone shipments touched about 452 million in 2011, which is projected to grow 35.8 per cent to 614 million in 2012, as per CyberMedia Research.
‘When I took over last December, we were present in 40 top cities, which rose to 80 by the end of March. We will take this to 250 locations by the end of this fiscal,’ RIM India managing director Sunil Dutt said.
Despite its Canadian parent RIM losing grip on the market of late to more agile players like Samsung and Apple, the company over the weekend launched BlackBerry Porsche P-9981 as part of its strategy to grow fast in this market.
RIM India has been garnering market share here with its pie going up by two notches last fiscal. As of March 2012, RIM India had 15 per cent market share, up from 13 per cent in FY2010-11.
However in terms of the pecking order, it stands third behind Nokia and Samsung which have 38 and 28 per cent share, respectively as of March 2012, according to data from industry research agency CyberMedia Research.
Dutt, who joined RIM India last December from HP India, is confident of doing better this year with a target of outgrowing the industry growth which is projected to be 40 per cent. However, this is not even half the rate at which the smartphone segment grew in 2011, when it logged 87 per cent.
‘The domestic smartphone market is growing at over 40 per cent this year, after clipping at 87 per cent last year. I am sure we will be able to grow much faster than the industry rate,’ Dutt said. He refused to put a number citing its parent company's silent period.
Overall there are 18.3 million BlackBerry users in the country, out of which 90 per cent are BlackBerry Messenger users, he said.
When asked about where does India stand in terms of the parent company's global strategy, Dutt said, ‘This is a very important market for them globally and within the Asia- Pacific region, India is one of the top three markets.’
Though he refused to specify the ranking of the country among the three, it is reliably learnt that India is No. 3 after Indonesia and China.
It can be noted that the Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing smartphone market with the Q1 of 2012 shipment touching 37.3 million. Global smartphone shipments touched about 452 million in 2011, which is projected to grow 35.8 per cent to 614 million in 2012, as per CyberMedia Research.
Next Story
