Article 1 (Technology)
This article talks about how RIM (Research in Motion) now called Black Berry is making strategies to come back in the market. They are planning to introduce a new phone set which will be economical to buy rather than other brand new models of black berry such Q10 whose retail price range from $700-$800 in US and Canada. Meanwhile they also plan to open its BBM instant messaging service to rival manufacturers. This is a texting service and apart from company’s downfall about 60 million people using this service on monthly basis exchanging about 10 billion messages everyday which are read in less than 20 seconds of being received. According to the Ken Campbell, CEO of the North American wireless operator Tunisiana, “If BlackBerry expects to compete against Samsung; it has to move its range of handsets this way”.
People using smart phones in Africa tend to use Samsung handsets more because of their affordable price ranging to $250 or less. Price of Samsung’s Galaxy Pocket hand set is about $125. However Black Berry did not reveal their price range for the Q5. Another issue will be if the local carriers choose to offer subsidies in return for wireless contracts. It will be a hard task for Black Berry to increase their sales in the market as well to make profit. Shoppers seeking to have a black berry hand set in Africa are still sensitive to price.
They also made a decision of opening up BBM Channels, enhancing communication with groups. This might