RIM banks on new BlackBerry innovations

CEBU, Philippines - Amid the tough competition in the smartphone industry, Research in Motion (RIM) banks on the hyperconnectivity and adaptability of Filipinos as they introduce further innovations of the BlackBerry brand.

RIM Director of the Philippines Cameron Vernest said that BlackBerry’s diversed portfolio of products is a “perfect fit” with the highly-connected culture of the Filipinos.

He added that the company sees a lot of opportunities in the Philippines particularly the Cebuano market and projects a strong market growth in the country.

He further cited that the brand is has a notable performance in the Philippines, adding that they topped among other smartphone brands from January to June 2011 with BlackBerry Curve 8520 as the top-selling smartphone in the country.

With the BlackBerry Messenger featuring unlimited messages, photo sharing and group chats and real-time nature of messaging, Vernest said that the Filipinos prefer to stay connected in a more affordable way, thus sticking to the brand.

“Filipinos love Blackberry. They love the qwerty keypad. They have families everywhere in the world and BlackBerry supports the hyperconnected needs of the Filipinos and their love for social media, aside from their interest in tech gadgets,“ he said. 

Noting that Filipinos rank eight largest Facebook users in the world and the twelfth most penetrated nation on Twitter, he added that Blackberry goes higher in their presence in the Philippine market as it strongly offers applications integrated with social media.

Introducing the new BlackBerry Curve 9220 and 9320 smartphones, he stated that such innovations signify their commitment in investing and providing better solutions and products for the Asian markets.

“The consumers are the reasons why we’re doing this. Poor customer experience reflects how poor the brand is. And Filipinos make the change of the latest products that we have. They force us to make more and go forward. It is developed by Filipinos and for Filipinos,” he said.

With 78 million subscribers globally and 56 million BBM users, Vernest said that BlackBerry continues to grow as a strong smartphone brand as there are 48 new users added each second and over two million every month. (FREEMAN)