BlackBerry maker pinpoints Kingdom market success

Saudi Arabia is the second largest market in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM), says a top official. "This is an important market for us," said Sandeep Saihgal, managing director - Middle East of RIM. In an exclusive interview with Arab News, Saihgal said the Kingdom has around 47 million mobile subscribers, with a penetration rate of 173 percent (US-Saudi Business Brief, Nov. 2011), highlighting the sheer size of this market. He said RIM has performed well in Saudi, with the BlackBerry Curve 8520 being the number one best-selling smartphone in the Kingdom for 12 consecutive months, according to the GfK data (Nov. 2011). Saihgal said RIM had also experienced exponential growth in the region. "From August 2010 to August 2011, we witnessed a year-on-year growth of 225 percent in the Kingdom alone, and 140 percent in the Middle East region as a whole for the same period (GfK September 2011). These are fantastic numbers, given the strong competition in the market." Saighal added: "We offer unique services to our customers, such as the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service which allows BlackBerry users to send messages to each other for free. Our KSA customers are really big adopters of this service - 99 percent of all BlackBerry smartphone users in KSA use the BBM service, which is one of the highest adoption figures globally. We recently introduced BBM Connected Apps, which are mobile applications that connect directly with BBM and allow users to interact with their BBM contacts/ network directly from the application. For example, you can send contacts notifications and updates or invite them to join in, all without ever needing to leave the app." He added: "In terms of our products, we will be building on the success of the BlackBerry 7 smartphone portfolio with a new software update (BlackBerry OS 7.1, announced this month at CES) that will allow BlackBerry users to instantly share information and content by simply tapping their NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone against another NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone using the BlackBerry TAG service. This means that they can instantly invite a friend to BBM, exchange contact information, documents, URLs, photos and other multimedia content. BlackBerry 7.1 will also provide a Wi-Fi hotspot, so that users can turn their BlackBerry smartphone into a mobile hotspot that can be shared by up to 5 Wi-Fi-enabled devices, including laptops and tablets." Saighal said: "We also recently announced an update to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet that will incorporate native email and calendar. The BlackBerry PlayBook is already recognized for delivering powerful performance, true multi-tasking, advanced web browsing and HD multimedia in an ultra-portable design. With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, the advanced messaging experience offers a new unified inbox, multi-tasking within email, rich-text email composing and editing, and inbox management tools." Saighal added: "We held a press conference with SAGIA on the sidelines of the Global Competitiveness Forum to announce The BlackBerry Entrepreneurship Academy, a first of its kind in this market. The academy, which will be funded by SAGIA and its sister institutions, Cadre and The Centennial Fund, aims to accelerate the growth of mobile app development in the KSA; support and foster the growth of local software developers and "digital entrepreneurs" in the Saudi economy; and help create localized mobile apps and content for end users on the BlackBerry platform. Through the academy, RIM will provide training workshops, a support team and consultation to help entrepreneurial Saudi developers with the commercial and technical aspects of developing mobile applications and content, he added.