“It is easy to forget now amid its economic and political convulsions but for many years Venezuela was BlackBerry’s South American jewel, an unexpected success story in a country better known for chasing away foreign businesses,” Ligimat Pérez reports for IDG News.
“With a cellphone penetration larger than its 29 million habitants, most of them chatty by nature and eager to show off the best technology they could afford, Venezuela was paradise for smartphone makers despite government economic controls. BlackBerry landed first and Venezuelans fell in love with it,” Pérez reports. “That success mattered even more from 2012 after key markets like the US and Mexico started to turn their backs on the Canadian phone, and Venezuelans rushed into the stores to buy more. So, sales jumped 72% according to the state telecom agency Conatel. The socialist realm of Hugo Chavez became BlackBerry’s regional bastion, more important even than Brazil. BlackBerries accompanied Venezuelans to the beach, the office, even to bed. “PIN me,” became the fashionable phrase among a large legion of users. Even Chavez showed off his BlackBerry on his TV show.”
Pérez reports, “But now this Caribbean oasis is turning into quicksand for the once-groundbreaking company. Its market share is starting to crumble, which is bad enough, even worse, the company’s revenues are trapped in the socialist republic.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ting” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Beleaguered BlackBerry CEO Chen belittles iPhone users as ‘wall huggers’ who carry battery-short phones – March 7, 2014
Apple MacBooks, iPhones, iPads invade White House, surround Obama’s BlackBerry and Dell PC – September 4, 2011
RIM posts higher 4Q profit, sales; Obama’s BlackBerry endorsement helped claims analyst – April 3, 2009