Originally Posted by
texazzpete Those WERE loyal Blackberry markets in the past. That's all fading now. BBM moving cross platform and BB10 not supporting BIS but relying on data plans that are in the same region as those for Android devices has made the cheap and powerful Android devices very appealing to the masses.
In Nigeria, Blackberry used to be wildly popular in the 18 - 24 demographic for BIS and BBM. Now cheap Quad Core Chinese Android phones from Tecno, Gionee and a few others are sweeping the market. Lenovo sees this and plans a launch here for Q1 2014. Why do you think BBM remains the most downloaded app in the iOS and Android app stores in most emerging markets? People are switching.
This same situation is mirrored in nearly every other emerging market where Blackberry used to be wildly popular. Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand, you name it.
I spoke to a friend of mine who runs a retail store in Lagos, Nigeria. According to him, aside from the diehard keyboard lovers that buy the Q5 and the Q10 in trickles, sales of BlackBerry devices are in a very steep decline.
Whatever the fruit of BlackBerry and Foxconn's partnership is, it had better come sooner rather than later.