But according to The Verge, who spoke to two members of the BlackBerry Mobile team, the company considers last year's sales a success.īlackberry Mobile and TCL are apparently coming into this year "with a feeling of mission accomplished," which has less to do with actual sales numbers and more to do with how available their devices are to consumers. IDC's Francisco Jeronimo says that just 850,000 BlackBerry devices shipped last year, a very low number that's well behind those of companies like Apple and Samsung. The company hope to garner “double-digit market share of the premium market (phones priced over Rs 20,000) in the next 12 months, he said.TCL unveiled the Blackberry KEYOne at MWC 2017 and now, a year later, we have an idea of how well it sold as well as a glimpse into the company's outlook going forward.
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Also, now there is the convenience of Android OS on BlackBerry, so we are very optimistic about the devices,” he said.Īs per data from telecom operators, there are still one million active BlackBerry service users in India, he said.
So security is a critical element, which BlackBerry has been known for. “People are now transacting over their phones. While Samsung continues to dominate the market, Chinese players like Lenovo, Xiaomi and vivo have aggressively eaten into the market share of domestic players like Micromax and Lava.Īsked how the company plans to regain market share in India, Singh said smartphones are more than just phone call making devices now. India is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally. The company has taken a number of steps, including adopting the Android platform for powering its phones in attempts to re-capture its position. Once a dominant player in the smartphone category, BlackBerry has been struggling in recent years against global competitors like Samsung and Apple.Įarlier this year Finnish firm Nokia, once a market leader, also re-entered India with a range of feature and smartphones. The device will be available on Amazon.in from August 8. Also, the pricing is almost at par with the international model, even though the India version has higher specifications,” Singh said.Ĭompared to the international model that has 3GB RAM and 32GB onboard memory, the Indian version manufactured by Optiemus has 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory, he said. “The KEYone, for example, is the first dual SIM BlackBerry phone in the Indian market. Optiemus is working closely with BlackBerry to add features that are relevant to the Indian market, he said.
These will be across price points,” Optiemus Infracom Executive Director Hardip Singh said. “We have a strong pipeline (of devices) for the next 6-12 months. The company, which had tied up with Optiemus Infracom earlier this year for manufacturing and distributing its devices in India and neighbouring countries, today launched its new handset ‘KEYone’ priced at Rs 39,990. With the lineup that is planned, I hope to see India among our top 5 markets,” BlackBerry Senior Vice President, General Manager, Mobility Solutions, Alex Thurber told PTI. “India is a very important market for us. It still has around a million Blackberry service users in the country and the company plans to leverage that. After Nokia, it’s now Canadian firm BlackBerry which is attempting a comeback in the Indian smartphone market and plans to launch a slew of devices across price points.