Blackberry Corner @ Mall Ambassador
Nowadays, many questions and statements are addressed to me regarding Blackberry, from those who assume I have it already (“What is your PIN?“), to those who worship Blackberry or should I say ambassadors of Research In Motion? 🙂 (“Hari gini ga punya BB?“,”You should get yourself a BB“). At the same time, I also witness how Blackberry take Indonesia market by storm. Not difficult, number of new Blackberry users from my colleagues at work and also friends says it all already. Not to mention the long queue of people in shopping mall outside Blackberry outlets. So what is so special with Blackberry itself that one by one, people are switching to this device? If few years ago you see people carrying two devices (GSM and CDMA), now you will see two or three devices (with one of them is Blackberry).
The growth of Blackberry in Indonesia is indeed phenomenal. Recent report suggested the growth is at incredible 500%, with total sales to date of 1.2 millions, making Indonesia among the top countries of Blackberry Users (along with the US and Canada). Positioned as a smart phone with specialties in push email, this device target market is supposed to be those who need to be connected to the email all the time, i.e. business people. Are we saying that number of business people in Indonesia is far bigger than other countries? Certainly not.
One of the logical explanations behind the craze for blackberry in Indonesia is that the internet infrastructure is so poor that people switch to mobile broadband for internet access. Maybe yes. But there are so many devices with 3.5G connectivity capability which cost far lower than Blackberry. Why not them? The monthly fee for the unlimited internet is also quite similar (150K per month). Touch screen smart phones such as i-Phone or Google Nexus One with larger screens offer better experience in internet browsing than BB. So this argument does not stand.
Another argument is that Indonesian people are not comfortable with touch screen and prefer Qwerty pad. This is true. Qwerty pads indeed offer much comfortable in texting. Well, we have many other qwerty pad devices, particularly those China-made. They are also equipped with internet access capability. Why not them? So this argument, again, does not stand.
Now, the only distinct feature which makes Blackberry stands out against other devices is the Blackberry Messenger (BBM). This one for sure is the killer. It allows fellow BB users to send text, free of charge. To many people, this feature is the main selling point, citing that it saves them money on monthly Telecommunication bills. Well, on top of the cost of millions of rupiahs on the device at the first place, the monthly fee, say at 100K per month, I would reckon that those who say BB saves them money have monthly average spending on telecommunication bills above IDR 200K. To some people, this might be true, but to some others, sorry, you are just using the economical reason excuse to shield away from your craze about Blackberry 🙂
The rising popularity of social networking and microblogging sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and also the popular chatting tool Yahoo Messenger also plays part in the increasing demand of Blackberry. I can bet that there are more than 95% of Blackberry user having Facebook account. Coincidentally, the growth of Facebook users in Indonesia is also one of the fastest in the world. Now, what’s that all about?
Judging from the popularity of new package from telecommunication provider (50K per month for Yahoo Messenger, Facebook and Tweeter access only), and combining all the reasons above, the conclusion I can derive on the rising popularity of Blackberry : Indonesian people just love to chat, text, Facebook-ing and Tweeter-ing 🙂
The craze for blackberry will still last. And well, for now, I’m still not switching to Blackberry, but I don’t rule myself out to be taken by Blackberry storm in the upcoming times. 🙂
Hendro Santoso's Hut 