In the past month, I’ve increasingly been baffled by RIM’s Blackberry popularity in Indonesia, or at least in Jakarta. No matter where I go in this town, I can always spot the ubiquitous device at all times, anywhere, anytime.
What prompts Blackberry’s super popularity in Indonesia? As a marketing person, I can’t help but be genuinely interested in Blackberry’s diffusion within the population. What escalated its rate of diffusion and why? Why didn’t a new, innovative concept like the iPhone catches on with the population and replaces the pioneer? And how was it able to catch up to the previous market leader, Nokia?
All of these bring great interest to me, because if I were a company, I could really learn from RIM (Research In Motion, the maker of Blackberry) and use its business model to market my new product to the masses – to a dizzying success I might add.
To be sure, I can be certain of one thing. Blackberry was first adopted by business people and busy professionals, who can really benefit from its as-of-yet-unbeatable, superior push mail technology. If you haven’t had the chance to experience the ecstasy of having emails pushed to that little device, you won’t understand the kind of love I’m talking about.
Put it this way – if your income or life depends on emails and instant communication, and you’re out there without access to a computer or internet, a Blackberry is your best friend in the whole world, and you will surely fight tooth and nails if someone were to try to pry it off your hands. That’s what colloquially known as “Blackberry Addiction.”
But what about the rest of the population? What triggers this mass adoption of Blackberry to the moms, socialites, teenagers, school kids, college kids, and everyone else in between – what I would refer to as the non-business, “recreational” smartphone users. Why would they prefer this business tool instead of the more consumer-centric, multimedia rich and capable webkit-based OS iPhone? Let’s analyze.
A Blackberry is a great device. Moreover, it’s a great business tool. But upon my usage and subsequent addiction to it, I can thoroughly conclude that this is a great business tool – and that’s about it. How many agree with me that it’s not a device as consumer centric (and as nice) as an iPhone if you’re NOT a business person and only need the device to check your Facebook status, Twitter, or Blog?
Although you can do all that with a regular data capable phone, let’s just assume that you like your Blackberry because, say, it’s easier to do it on a Blackberry, and that one way or the other, you already got it anyways so... why not. But I would assume that once I get a taste of what the Blackberry can do, I want more. I’m always constantly on the search for the bigger, the better, and the best. Why? Because I’m a consumer, and I can. This is what I do. I always want more. If I know of another device which gives me better browsing experience, better usage experience, better prestige and better experience overall, I would switch in a heartbeat, unless there’s obvious barrier to it, like an annual contract or cost. In fact, my rate of conversion should be so much faster considering I’ve gotten the experience in this specific genre, which is smartphone.
Yes, you can load apps into the Blackberry. Yes, you can play games on it. Yes, you can surf the web with it, and listen to music, and take pictures, and read news, and read blogs. But compared to the iPhone, it pales in comparison. To start with, Blackberry OS isn’t optimized for web browsing, unlike the iPhone, which to this day remains the only OS capable of delivering rich, true HTML web pages closest to those viewed from a desktop. I would imagine for “recreational” smartphone users, this feature would be one of the most important to them. And Blackberry isn’t widely known for its multimedia capabilities, neither. That’s the second factor for these consumers.
And don’t tell me that people can’t afford the iPhone. A Blackberry may be cheaper than an iPhone, but it’s not THAT much cheaper especially comparing the Bold model which is pretty much on par with it. Plus, Telkomsel, one of Indonesia’s largest cellular providers, offers the iPhone at around $600 (albeit having the device locked to the carrier, but so what? That’s how things work in the US and Europe too), about $200 more than basic Blackberry model and on par with some of its higher models. And besides, in this town of over indulgence and over excesses, I thought a brand as prestigious and expensive as Apple would actually be preferred by the elitists. And as in the proven case of the Blackberry, in the beginning the elitists influence the followers, which then adopted the device at a much higher rate.
So in terms of form factors and price, the iPhone would seem to meet and even surpass Blackberry’s unique point of sales.
I can think of a couple of more advantages the Blackberry has that the iPhone can easily make up for, like BB Messenger or the physical keyboard. Yes, BB Messenger is nice and always on, making for a truly connected experience for its users, but there’s a plethora of instant chat engines available besides it. My favorite is Google Talk. I’m sure there’s a third-party applications out there for every user’s need. With Apple’s 50,000 choice of apps in its stores, it’s impossible you can’t find the one that suits your need. And while BB’s physical keyboard is nice, I’ve seen countless iPhone users type just as fast and just as proficient on iPhone’s smart keyboard. It’s all about adaptation.
Don’t get me wrong, I like my Blackberry just as much as the next guy - having realized its full potential during my job search - and I’m not trying to promote the iPhone, but as a marketing person I’m captivated by this strange phenomena. Where did RIM succeed where Apple fails? Researching the heart of the topic, I can draw several conclusions.
First, ease of access. RIM has been very smart in taking the “Free-for-all” approach where they allow their devices to be unlocked with relative ease, thus allowing the mass to freely choose whatever carriers they choose to go with; unlike Apple’s snobbish approach.
That leads to number two, where the general population mass-adopted this business device, influenced first by the early adopters (business people) in a “trickle-down” effect. The general population accepted Blackberry’s perceived advantages or benefits, and coupled with the device’s ease of access, further enhanced its rate of diffusion.
Ease of access not only refers to the actual ease of access in USING the device, but also in adopting the device, i.e. unlocking it and registering it with the carrier of their choices. The majority of Indonesians prefer prepaid services as opposed to subscription (contract) basis, something that RIM had learned to accept and adapted to very well. In contrast, Apple’s official policy is to “lock” in their devices to a specific telecom carrier on each country, and put in serious efforts to keep the devices locked, including frequent rewrites of the software containing locking codes on its software updates (and most certainly on all new iPhone models coming out) and frequent security updates on the firmwares. If one is not careful where you plug in your iPhone, that expensive piece of technology can suddenly go dead. As in forever. This is not even mentioning the fact that they don’t even allow people with “unlocked” and “jailbroken” iPhones to buy apps via their official channel, which is iTunes. That pretty much defeats the purpose of having it.
In short, they make life hard for people who want to adopt their devices. That was why it didn’t work in Indonesia. It may be nice and all, but if it’s worth more trouble than it’s worth, remember that people here have got the alternative choice: Blackberry.
Tomorrow: Smartphone War: The Battle for Indonesia. What Apple and RIM should do.
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