Nothing wrong with BlackBerry pricing in India: MD Sunil Lalvani

BlackBerry is not going to address the low end smartphone market in India. Competitors such as Nokia may have found enough traction in the below  Rs 5000 smartphone market through its Asha series but for Blackberry, the market they are targeting is above $100. According to a Wall Street Journal story earlier today, as competition from handset makers like Samsung Nokia and Apple has grown, BlackBerry has seen a steady decline in sales in India. The company’s handsets accounted for just 7.5 percent of the total 15.2 million smartphone shipments to India in 2012, according to a report by CyberMedia Research. The Canadian handset-maker slashed the price of its entry-level BlackBerry Curve smartphone to 9,900 rupees from 11,990 earlier this year and introduced cheaper subscription plans for its customers in India. India is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. Smartphone manufacturers shipped 5.7 million handsets to the country during the first three months of this year, an increase of 64 percent from the same period last year, according to Singapore-based research firm Canalys. [caption id=“attachment_848137” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sunil Lalvani, BlackBerry India MD launches the new Q10. Image via BlackBerry[/caption] The Q10’s arrival in India comes hard on the heels of Google’s Nexus 4 and Panasonic’s first smartphone, P51, which both launched in the country in May this year. On Wednesday, Lenovo also introduced six new mobile phones to the Indian market. The phone is priced at Rs 44,990 and goes on sale from tomorrow. Sunil Lalvani, Managing Director of Blackberry India, spoke briefly to Firstpost: FP: Between the premium Z10 and the Curve, and now the Q10, isn’t BlackBerry leaving a huge price segment unaddressed? Lalvani: We have already said Q5 is being launched and this will be a mid-market device. For the first-time smartphone user we have the Curve series which runs on the older BB7 platform, with attractive EMI options. In the Indian context, we have an offering below Rs 10,000, between Rs 10,000-15,000, between Rs 15,000-20,000 and between Rs 20,000-30,000. Now, the Q10 comes in the Rs 40,000 plus category. FP: Comments on market share loss Lalvani: BlackBerry has built a strong user base. Yes, market share has gone up and down globally. The older BB operating system served us last decade but for the last one year the BlackBerry top management was involved in building a new OS. We built BB10. The company has been in a transitionary phase for the last one year. FP: How has market share fluctuation affected you in India? Lalvani: No comments. I thought you wanted comments on the global market share, which I have given earlier. All I can say it India is projected to have a CAGR of 50 percent in the next three years in smartphones. FP: And will BlackBerry aim to surpass that growth rate in India? Lalvani: No comment