Janeman Latul

BlackBerry Maker Upbeat on Indonesia Market

Research In Motion is now free to focus on sales of its BlackBerry smartphones in Indonesia, one of the Canadian company’s fastest-growing markets, after concluding months of tense negotiations with the Ministry of Communications and Information.

In June, the government banned import licenses for new BlackBerry models until RIM established an after-sales service office, which the company opened on Aug. 21. The government reciprocated by lifting the import ban earlier this month.

Last week, the Jakarta Globe spoke with Gregory Wade, RIM’s regional vice president for the Asia-Pacific region about prospects for their smartphone here.

What do you think about the Indonesian market?

People are moving to smartphones. Why? In many cases, they’re able to use them as their Internet connection.

I think in many ways a very positive element of the Indonesian market is that the dynamic is really encouraging — whether for young people, professionals or students, who haven’t made the jump to smartphones.

Do you think the Indonesian market overall is accommodating of your company’s needs?

Yes, most certainly. It’s accommodating and certainly it’s an important market for a variety of reasons. First, people love to use social-networking applications here. Second, people love local applications as well. Indonesians love to multitask and the Blackberry is perfect for multitasking.

What do you think about the tight competition in the smartphone market in Indonesia from Chinese and South Korean rivals, as well as the Apple iPhone?

I think all through our history — and this has been a consistent message — we have always focused on our own value, our own core differentiator. We offer a broad range of BlackBerry smartphones in the Indonesian market. In many ways, it’s all about providing choices to Indonesian consumers.

Did you raise the issue of illegal and smuggled devices with the ministry?

We’re not going to share details of the confidential discussions that we had with the regulator. That’s core to our practice. Again, the important thing is we work very hard to observe, understand, appreciate and meet the needs of the market.

What do you think about growth prospects in Indonesia a year from now?

It’s really important that we’re going to continue to invest. We’re going to continue grow, whether it’s from our partners’ perspectives, channel perspectives or applications and content. Local applications and content are very important for us.

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