A
month into his new role, BlackBerry India managing director Sunil
Lalvani says his company will not ape competition strategies of price
drops or liquidating old stock, but will bet on offering value to drive
its sales. The Canadian smartphone maker also has no intention to get
into the $100 (approx Rs 5,600) device market in India, he told ET in an
interview.
About the plans to offer
BlackBerry Messenger free on Android and iOS platforms, Lalvani says
there is a possibility of losing customers to rivals but adds that it
may also bring customers back to BlackBerry devices because they can
connect to friends using other smartphones. Edited excerpts:
BlackBerry
Messenger will soon be made available for free for Google Android and
Apple iOS devices. Will this change your revenue model in India, where
telcos offer paid plans for BBM alone for around Rs 129 a month? Have
you initiated talks with mobile operators for renegotiation of revenue
share?
We have very strong relations with top
nine carriers in India and we're well-positioned to exploit this as we
can grow the market and get BBM into more users, across platforms. We
can also get BES10 (BlackBerry Enterprise Service), which now manages
enterprise customers across Android, BB and iOS, and monetize this.
So
overall, it becomes a revenue share for carriers and us. It's too early
to say about negotiations with carriers as we're still unclear as to
when will iOS and Android approve BBM on their app stores and whether
they will charge for these apps.
BlackBerry
India's largest user base — the youth — buy the smartphone for the BBM
experience. If BBM is available on other platforms, then these consumers
may move to, say, iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. What will BlackBerry do to
keep these customers from moving to other brands?
If
a user wants to move on the basis of price consideration, because he
would get a $100 (approx Rs5,600) Android device where we don't have an
equivalent, then they will switch. We may not be able to retain a
customer whose prime consideration is budget or price.
On
the contrary, we might find a scenario where loyal customers that had
moved on from BlackBerry coming back now that they will be able to
connect to their friends through BlackBerry cross platform. Further, the
first-time smartphone owners could also come to BlackBerry (Curve)
because cross platform BBM is not restricting them to a small user
group. We have begun offering the new Curve for EMI of Rs 799 and data
plans for as low as Rs 129 for tier 2 and 3 circles, focusing on first
time users.
Do you think new handsets will
push up market share? And if BlackBerry does not bring handsets in quick
succession like Samsung does, would you be able to compete at all?
We're
not here to ape competition strategy of price drops, or to liquidate
old stock or inventory like some companies are doing. India has always
been top priority market for BlackBerry globally. Z10 was launched in
India within a month of global launch and India will be the second
country in Asia Pacific to get the Q10. We're not indulging in price
wars with competition or massive cash back offers, but we're offering
value.
We have ensured that total cost of
ownership of a BlackBerry comes down, so we lowered data plan prices
from Rs 299 to Rs 129 a month for 15 circles, for full BlackBerry
experience. We've rolled this out with Aircel, Idea and Vodafone. We're
in talks with other operators to taking it pan-India
You
say India is one of the top priority markets for BlackBerry globally,
but the Z10 and the upcoming Q10 don't exhibit the element of
affordability that most Indian consumers look out for...
We
don't want to play in all the handset market segments, from under $50
to over $500, because we don't have the portfolio. We don't want to set
false pretexts by saying that we will be there in the $100 segment. The
Q10 (to be launched day after) and Z10 are placed as premium devices in
the market for which, we know, that the consumer will pay a premium for
the value they offer. We're addressing the customer base that owns a
$100 device and is now looking to upgrade to a $300 (approx Rs 17,000)
smartphone. With the Q5, which will come on the BB10 platform, we're
targeting the urban youth.
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