RIM committed to consumer market

Research In Motion (RIM), manufacturer of BlackBerry smartphones in Latin America and the Caribbean, says it remains committed to the consumer market and that claims it will withdraw from that segment are misleading.



The company posted a notice on its website which indicated that after last Thursday’s earnings call to discuss the financial results for the quarter ended March 2012, “we’ve received comments and questions from our customers about RIM’s commitment to the consumer market.”



RIM said that while management has announced plans to refocus the company’s efforts on its core strengths, and on its enterprise customer base, “we were very explicit that we will continue to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments.”



Among those strengths is the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service, as well as the security and manageability of its platform, RIM said in a statement issued through the Miami, Florida-based public relations firm, Interamerican Marketing Solutions.



According to the statement, RIM’s chief executive officer, Thorsten Heins, stated at the earnings call that “whilst we announced we would refocus on the enterprise business, we also stated that part of competing in the ‘bring your own device’ segment is to create a compelling consumer offering.”



Heins also said that ahead of the BlackBerry 10 launch, and throughout the remainder of the firm’s financial year 2012/13, which starts in April, “it is critical that we drive BlackBerry 7 sales to sustain the subscriber base.”



To do that, the company plans to aggressively incentivize sales of BlackBerry 7 smartphones to both drive upgrades from older BlackBerry products to BlackBerry 7, and to attract future phone customers to BlackBerry 7 for their first smartphone experience.



In addition, Heins said RIM have new BlackBerry 7 devices scheduled to come out in the next few months to reinvigorate its position in the key entry level smartphone segment, and to support its efforts to continue growing the subscriber base by upgrading future phone customers to smartphones.



RIM will also seek partnerships to deliver consumer features and content – such as media consumption applications – that are not central to the BlackBerry value proposition.



business@gleanerjm.com