The Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion has globally lost market share and market value after being comprehensively outplayed by technology giants Apple and Samsung.
In a bid to change its fortunes, the company changed its top leadership recently. In India, though BlackBerry devices continue to be popular and the company is charting out a three-year strategic plan to strengthen its market share. Business Line met Mr Sunil Dutt, the newly appointed head of India operations to get the details.
In your assessment, what's going wrong with RIM globally?
I don't think company is going wrong. The fact is we have seen 35 per cent growth in revenue quarter on quarter and we have added 70-75 million subscribers. Clearly, consumer don't see anything wrong. But do we need to do more? Certainly. At times the growth plateaus then the organisation rediscovers itself to work on its strengths. I think RIM has undergone that phase.
Is BlackBerry losing out on the application space?
We have about 50,000 apps but I admit we haven't spoken enough about it. People say we got only 50,000 apps and Apple has 5 lakh but the important thing to ask is how many apps do people use. I talk to users constantly and I find that most people don't use more than early 2 digits. So our focus is not on numbers but to bring relevant apps and then take that story to consumers. Two years ago, 4,000 developers. Now, we have 26,000 developers. You will see some work happening in this area next couple of months.
Globally, RIM announces new launches but then it gets delayed. The launch of OS 10 is an example. Do you think this is acceptable?
Candid personal opinion is no. Why it is getting delayed? I am not qualified to answer that. We would like to have OS 10 soon for our consumers.
There are some rumours that RIM is opening up its platform to rival operating systems like Android. Isn't that a suicidal move?
This is speculative in nature so I cannot comment on that. I am not hearing anything on this from organisation
Just like Nokia is betting on its Windows move, do you think RIM needs to have its own one big bet?
I don't want to comment on what competition is doing but unlike Nokia we don't have a challenge in the operating system capabilities. It's for the global managers to decide whether such an association makes sense.
Given that RIM is getting beaten elsewhere, does India now become more important?
India has been the focus market for RIM globally. My team is working on strategy for the next three years. It will take us a few weeks to firm and then we will take it to global to bring it in line with the organisation.
But broad areas of focus would be on building brand association, efficient go to market channel, invest in customer research and having right kind of people.
How will you be different?
My belief is don't fix it if it ain't broke. So we will continue to do what we are doing well and strengthen capabilities in areas like telemedicine, mobile education, m-commerce.
Once we have products then we need a channel system that takes it to the consumers wherever they are. What's in our control is to get the right kind of talent. It is also in our control to give timely feedback to global organisation.