Research in Motion is Going Down

^{Source: ReadWriteWeb}

The Canadian telecommunication company had actually very impressive sales in the old days: from $ 300 million sales in 2003 to $ 20 billion sales in 2011! Their product, BlackBerry, was the pioneer of smart phones back then; long before Apple and Android phones had been released! However, nowadays, the competitors are becoming huge. Let’s take Apple for an example. The overall sales of Apple last quarter (December 2010) was $ 46,3 billion from only $ 26,7 billion in December 2010; that is 73% sales growth! Android, on the other hand, overtook smart phones market share in the United States, according to Comscore.

Nevertheless, RIM’s are now targeting the Asian market instead of the United States and Canada. Based on the article that I read on The Next Web, the market demands for BlackBerry in SouthEast Asia is pretty high, especially in Indonesia. Last November, 3000 BlackBerry fans in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, gathered and jostled for the launching of Blackberry 9790. The idea of people standing in line for the new iPhone is quite normal for us, but for BlackBerry phones? Seriously Indonesia?!

The only reasonable answer for the question “Why is BlackBerry so popular in South East Asia?” is this: BlackBerry Messenger a.k.a BBM. BlackBerry produces the first smart phone that came up with a mobile-chat-feature in South East Asia and they are lovin’ it! South East Asians, especially Indonesians, love to keep in touch and now, with the fact that almost everyone has a BBM, it becomes the most effective communication tool!

So if you say Research in Motion is going down, I am not convinced because they still have a big market in South East Asia. However, looking at the designs and features that Android phones and iPhones offer, I doubt CrackBerry, uhm, I mean BlackBerry will stay long in the market. What do you think?