RIM’s global expansion continues. Packetology principal Aman Kapoor tells us that Bharti Telecom, the largest GSM operator in India is going to launch RIM’s Blackberry devices in that country early next week. Though he is short on details, it wouldn’t be a surprise, for the Indian consumers have been lusting for smart phones and PDA type devices. He did not reveal what model will be made available in India, but my guess is that it is going to be 7100 Charm. PalmOne’s Treo 600 is already quite popular in India, and more smart phones are headed to the second hottest market on the planet. I think these smart phones make sense for a country like India, which has very low PC penetration. We all know how to use Treo as a near PC replacement. But I have high hopes for RIM because of its seamless always-on experience. For Bharti, I am sure this is a way to up sell. They desperately need people to start using their GPRS and soon EDGE services.It would be a good way to get high-spending customers away from Hutch.
Blackberry makes Indian debut next week?
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4 comments so far
12:27 PM PT
AirTel is Bharti’s GSM service.
Blackberry is India is definitely big news. Just that people shudnt confuse it with Bharti offering RIM (Reliance India Mobiles) phones now. :)
10:14 PM PT
Its good to see big players entering Indian market. But at the same time it is still to be seen how aggressive are the market pricing offered by them. Also I’ve come across an article of Bharathi’s tie-up with JP Mobile, for providing e-mail and other PIM based services for corperates.
10:43 PM PT
Its been almost a week since the media announced the RIM launch by Bharti - but the trade is still in the dark about its features and pricing. Even calls to Airtel’s Pune office draws blank responses; officially, there’s only one staff member at their Pune office who can competently handle queries on internet-handling capabilities of their service in general; and he’s on leave since god knows when!
May be a more integrated approach of business-strategyimplementation will yield a better bottomline for Mr Mittal! Otherwise, he’s merely kicking a hitherto complacent, but more efficient competition into wakefulness …
Regards,
Sanjay.
2:10 AM PT
I’m not able to get complete picture about the solution. Does BlackBerry works with any service provider or only with AirTel? Does it has a facility to insert SIM into it?