While there’s still some contention over the iPhone’s status in the land of the rising sun, China Mobile is slated to bust out the BlackBerry 8700 before the end of the quarter. Although it’s a bit tempting to brag about BlackBerry beating the iPhone into the country, but let’s hold off to see if China Mobile actually called off talks, or if they’ve actually started them. There might have been a few delays getting the BlackBerry in before Christmas, but maybe all the waiting has been building up some excitement over there…?
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BlackBerry due in China this quarter
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Mainland China was supposed to get a bunch of BlackBerry 8700s by the end of December, but it’s still yet to happen. It’s taken long enough for RIM to crack the tough nut of the Chinese market, so what’s a bit longer, eh? While confident that everything is going smoothly now that they’re inside the borders, the ball is still in the carrier’s court to deliver.
“You should ask China Mobile about the timeline,” [Charles] Liu, RIM’s top executive in China, told Reuters. “From my perspective, everything is according to plan.”
10,000 BlackBerry 8700s are en route to China, following the October announcement. Alcatel’s involvement has earned it branding status on the BlackBerry, which will be carried exclusively by China Mobile for about RMB 3450. Rumors are floating that competing Gome Mobile might be dealing with Alcatel for some 8700s as well, but officials have denied the possibility so far. Well, a limited release is better than no release, eh?
Well, the stock rush from yesterday has earned RIM status as Canada’s biggest company by market share value. The Royal Bank of Canada used to hold the spot as top dog on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but after falling to $53.58, RIM’s 1.1% climb was enough to make it king of the hill. Tech hasn’t been this big since Nortel, back in the heady days of 2000, and as both a Canadian and tech enthusiast that’s some pretty good news. Now we just have to wait and see if the Chinese release of BlackBerrys which spurred the rally was worth all the hype. It’s hard to imagine BlackBerry doing poorly over there, but you never know…
After much confusion as to the availability of BlackBerry in China, we’ve finally got an official announcement that the BlackBerry 8700 is, in fact, landing there sometime this year. It’s been quite the struggle getting BlackBerry through the gates, but it’s finally going to happen. RIM’s stock took a huge jump at the news, hitting $125.62 at present after opening at $116.07. China’s running their own PT/Expo China Comm concurrent with CTIA, where the 8700 will be showcased and the good word spread.
A recent story went over some of the challenges RIM faces in the Chinese market, primarily China Unicom’s nefarious RedBerry. The article states that SIM cards and data plans are the only things available for BlackBerry, as previously reported. Despite this, we have it on good word that the 8700 and 7290 are, in fact, sold by China Mobile, but how well they’re doing against the significantly cheaper RedBerry remains to be seen.
“Chinese businessmen are not that international yet, so they are not as familiar yet with the Blackberry and prefer local gadgets,” said Rock Yang, principal handsets analyst at Beijing-based BDA. “Price will be the deciding factor in determining how the BlackBerry expands in China,” he added.
We just caught a story on BlackBerry’s poor penetration into China, even in light of the go-ahead given in July. Viable language support is still an issue, and a tough nut to crack for RIM. China Mobile is offering group plans for anyone who smuggles the devices in from Hong Kong or elsewhere, but they’re still unavailable for sale locally. There’s upwards of 600 million mobile users in China, and needless to say, RIM wants to get through the logistics so they can get in on the action.
By efficiently handling call silence, China Mobile has doubled the capacity of their base transceiver stations in Inner Mongolia with a handy little device called the Vmux-400. “So what?” you ask? Well, costs didn’t go up as a result of the upgrade. Doubling your efficiency at no effective cost is no mean feat. On top of providing better service to remote villages, the hardware also acts as a solid stepping-stone to 3G advances down the line.
“The Vmux-400 also provides a valuable head start for mobile operators in their migration to 3G, since optimization enables operators to free up leased lines used for 2G/2.5G traffic and apply them to their 3G networks,” [Thomas Q. Lu, President of RAD China] explains. “In this way, they can avoid the time delay and costs associated with installing additional leased lines,” he adds.
If the BlackBerry 8330 isn’t getting GPS, RIM might want to rethink that option. It turns out China is hurting for affordable location-based services, and for all the talk at WES, they could be in a position to fill that gap. They’re still getting their feet wet in Oriental waters, but making a good impression early on in a new market could set the tone for the rest of their efforts in China. If the BlackBerry 8130 was packing some GPS, then RIM could cash in on the demand with a reasonably priced handset, but even with Wi-Fi alone, you can get some decent location services working.
It’s possible that Apple might match India’s sale of a million phones in a week, but something tells me they won’t be able to pull off 6 million each month for the next little while. Call me crazy. By 3 years from now, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is hoping to nail the 500 million mark, after maintaining a steady 6 to 7 million subscriber growth while the country gets hooked up. For those of you not so hot with the math, that’s half of a billion, and about 45% market penetration. China’s great for RIM, and there’s sure to be some opportunities in Africa, but it’s hard to ignore numbers like these. The BlackBerry 8300 is in India, which is a start, but they’re going to have to keep pumping the newer lines out there in order to really cash in on the explosion.
