Nice Article about BlackBerry in Indonesia

You can read it here, some good stuff like:

RIM Setting Up Internet Filters for Blackberry Services in Indonesia | Asia-Pacific Business and Technology Report

"Aside from pricing, Indonesians prefer the easier, cheaper and more accessible web features of Blackberry services, as compared to the more expensive but unreliable home broadband connection that sets users back at $100 monthly. On top of that, Indonesians use the Internet more for digital social networking that surfing the net, which makes touchscreen devices such as iPhone less appealing."

"Broadband" internet in Indonesia is very bad and very expensive indeed!

It's not only because of the social networking but lot's of communications is going via sms and ping.
Just to avoid extra costs of a phone call. Sms is cheap, ping is even cheaper! This has nothing to do with the social networking. However enabling the BB services (for just approx. Rp90.000/month) enables the Indonesians to use the social networking too which is booming in Indonesia.

In my opinion the Blackberry is so successful in Indonesia is just because of the "free" ping instead of the (older system) SMS. In the past even business deals were made by SMS!

I think that touchscreen devices will be more attractive since the internet speed is quite good and it's an extra added value: Use the internet more on the Blackberry than on an expensive "broadband" connection.

I live in Indonesia and I can't wait to get the newest Bold Touch or the Monaco:
I don't know yet what to choose.
You get free wet/fat/dirty fingers/hands in this climate, so maybe the Bold Touch
I love the Monaco, but....the fingerprints....What about the speed of typing?
The specs of both are great.

However I still don't understand why fast/reliable internet is so expensive. Indonesia is still way behind.

Actually the blackberry ping/messenger has been sooooo laggy last weeks that I changed my mind completely. There is a huge delay. I have to wait for approx 5-60 minutes before the message has been delivered to the recipient. Terrible. I asked around and other users with other providers (Simpati, Mentari, Telkomsel, Indosat, XL and others) have the exact same problem. Maybe the blackberry is too popular in Indonesia and the servers can't handle the ping messages anymore.

For me ping is (was!) very important. It's all about ping here in Indonesia. If the blackberry messenger/ping system is not reliable anymore why should I buy a new blackberry? I played with the iPhone and there's nothing wrong with the email handling. Actually I see some advantages with email with the iphone, such as "conversation". I can see the complete conversation of a subject at once. That's quite a relieve. Blackberry is way behind with that.
I do have a Mac but I'm not that kind of freak as other Mac/Apple believers. It's no religion for me. So in that respect I don't want the iPhone. Just focus to the facts.
Furthermore I see some great advantages at the iPhone which I can't do with the Blackberry: Skype (which was announced by Skype 2 years ago but still not implemented), good photos (important for my business, not the holiday stuff) and making a short good quality product movie to send to my clients or business partners. Sorry RIM but I think I go for the iPhone5. Rim just can't speed up with the market.
Side effect: sync the iPhone with the mac is a piece of cake.
Blackberry Desktop for Mac isn't complete.
I'm afraid RIM is loosing and I am not convinced of RIM/Blackberry anymore.
Pricing of the new iPhone5 doesn't really matter. I just need fast reliable stuff.