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As reported last week on TechBeat, Research In Motion (RIM) confirmed Blackberry’s
new smart phones won’t be launching in Japan. They can’t justify the
cost of modifying its software for the Japanese market. The cost of
translating the operating system into the local Japanese language is too
high. Given their declining market share, it is a risk which is best
avoided. A spokeswoman for BlackBerry said, “Japan is not a major market
for BlackBerry, and we have no plans to launch BlackBerry 10 devices
there at this time.
The company’s move suggests that it sees little chance of Japan
emerging as a major market for its new devices at this time. The new Z10
and Q10 models equipped with the new BlackBerry 10 operating system are
considered the company’s best hope of revival in a market dominated by
android smart phones. Although the launch in Canada and UK has seen
strong sales, it seems unlikely that that they will make a foray into
the Japanese market anytime soon.
The news was reported by Japan’s Nikkei business daily who also
claimed that BlackBerry’s market share in Japan has shrunk to 0.3
percent from 5 percent. New innovative devices such as the iPhone and
the Samsung Galaxy have completely taken over the smart phone market in
recent years.
The recent decline in Blackberry’s market
share is not just limited to a single market. Its fourth-quarter North
American market share fell to 2 percent from more than 40 percent three
years ago. However, on the positive side the report also indicated that
BlackBerry will continue to offer support to existing users in the
Japanese market and will have Japanese language support on its new
operating system in the future.
Blackberry has pinned its hopes on these new models and will be
hoping to claw back some of its lost market share over the previous
years. It is unlikely that they will be able to affect Apple and
Samsung’s market share, but the new smart phones are a start of a long
journey.
[Image via thetechblock] Author : Paul C
