In a recent interview with tele.net, Sunil Dutt, managing director, India, RIM, spoke about the company?s business strategy and future plans in India. Excerpts?
How is RIM placed vis-?-vis other players in the smartphone segment?
RIM has established itself as an aspirational brand that reflects unmatched quality, high reliability and impeccable security along with seamless connectivity. We have an edge in terms of our push email services and security, social networking services, consumer applications and instant messaging services (BBM). We have taken several initiatives to cater to the needs of consumers across various segments.
We have grown and strengthened our market position in the Indian smartphone space, which has been dominated by a few players. Currently, RIM has a share of 12.3 per cent in the Indian smartphone market. Also, globally, the BlackBerry family has grown significantly with more than 80 million subscribers. There should be a certain amount of value addition to the user?s personal and professional expectations through a BlackBerry and we intend to focus on delivering on these expectations.
How important is the Indian market for RIM?
India is one of the priority markets for RIM and it is among the company?s high-growth markets as well. It is among the top 20 countries from the perspective of our global leadership. RIM?s focus at the organisational level is on catering to the diverse geospecific needs across the world. Also, we have been looking at strategic expansion and relevant innovation for Indian users. To highlight our commitment to the Indian market, we for the first time organised the global launch of the Curve 9220 handset in India. As the youth relies heavily on BBM as a connectivity tool, we have incorporated features like a dedicated BBM key and local language inputs in the device.
Being a leading player in the Indian enterprise market, we have continued to offer solutions that provide high levels of security and seamless connectivity at affordable costs.
How has the company performed over the past year in India?
In 2011, RIM witnessed significant growth in its Indian business. The company has maintained the momentum in 2012. We have ensured relevant pricing for the Indian market, thereby maintaining a large customer base. We have also worked towards ensuring the availability of the latest BlackBerry OS 7 devices, as this OS brings together next-generation technologies such as near-field communication, augmented reality and several integrated applications for users.
In line with our expansion plans, we have strengthened our channel and distribution network, and capitalised on India?s growing mobile user base. In addition, we have launched BlackBerry Premium stores in Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Mumbai to offer a holistic experience of using BlackBerry products and services.
Applications are one of the most exciting domains of our business. In several ways, apps are the direct touchpoint between the company and users as they access rich content through our platform, which helps them connect to the brand. We currently offer over 89,000 apps through our App World and have achieved over 3 billion downloads so far. RIM has a global skilled developer base with over 400,000 registered developers. The developer base in India has grown to over 36,000 from only 4,000 two years ago.
Our enterprise business has been strengthened through world-class solutions. With technologies such as BlackBerry Balance, mobile voice solutions and the mobile device management solution, Mobile Fusion, we have helped organisations in achieving cost efficiency and increased productivity.
What is your future business strategy for the Indian market?
We plan to invest a significant part of our time and resources in exploring the needs and expectations of consumers. By early 2013, we will launch commercial BB 10 devices. Meanwhile, we will continue to expand our customer base with the existing set of products, relevant pricing and content, high productivity tools, affordable service plans and subsequent expansion at the retail level as our key areas of focus.
Our new campaign, ?Action Starts Here? will also be a primary focus till December 2012. It is a regional brand campaign and was launched in August 2012 in India, Thailand and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region. The new red splat that appears in every BlackBerry smartphone will now be the symbol of ?action?. This will help create the desired buzz for our products during the upcoming festive season.
We have also revised our go-to-market strategy, under which we are targeting Tier II and Tier III markets in India. We have been active on the sales and distribution front with over 5,000 retail touchpoints across the country. With the help of partners and distributors such as Ingram, Redington and Brightpoint, we have set up over 500 BlackBerry Experience Zones.
The new-age medium is also an integral part of our marketing strategy and we are extensively using the digital medium to reach out to our target audience. We are also directly connecting with consumers through social media like Facebook and Twitter.
What is your response to the government?s security concerns about your network?
We reaffirm that encrypted BlackBerry Enterprise (BES) communications in India, and across the world, are secure and its content can only be accessed by the owners of the BES, who have control over confidential information. RIM has not entered into an agreement with the Indian government on lawful access and we refer questions regarding the requirements for lawful access in India to government authorities.
It is RIM?s policy to not comment on the specifics of lawful access solutions that may be required by various governments across the world to support licensed telecom operators in undertaking lawful access activities. RIM always follows consistent lawful access principles across the world.
What are the major challenges for the company in India?
Consumer addition will be a key challenge. We are working towards addressing it and building a single, cohesive and comprehensive ecosystem to offer relevant products, solutions and services. We have been focusing on repositioning ourselves in the Indian market. Besides, maintaining focus on the consumer segment and the enterprise market will be key to our success.
