BlackBerry to Cease Sales In Japan
Feb 7, 2013, 2:03 PM by Eric M. Zeman
updated Feb 7, 2013, 4:39 PM
BlackBerry will not sell its new Z10 and Q10 handsets in the Japanese market, reports Reuters. The company's share of the Japanese market has shrunk from 5% to 0.3%, and the smartphone maker can no longer justify the cost of modifying its software to accommodate the Japanese language. BlackBerry will also stop selling its older handsets, though it will continue to provide support for its existing user base. "We are in the process of launching BlackBerry 10 globally in key markets and we are seeing positive demand for the BlackBerry Z10 in countries where it has already launched," said spokeswoman Amy McDowell in a statement provided to media. "Japan is not a major market for BlackBerry and we have no plans to launch BlackBerry 10 devices there at this time. However, we will continue to support BlackBerry customers in Japan." The Z10 and Q10 are the first smartphones to run BlackBerry 10, the company's new operating system. They won't go on sale in the U.S. until later this year.
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Comments
What a lose :(
With Microsoft Window's 8, BlackBerry's BB 10, and Canonical Ubuntu phone are trying to innovate (in UI, price, design, security, apps etc) in someway to make them stand out in the crowd and grab the 3rd spot crown (hopefully they are shooting for the top but we have to be realistic here).
If we only have iOS/Mac OS X and Android/Chromium they OS will become scary similar and the differences will slowly erode away.
With the BlackBerry stopping sales in Japan, it is lessening competition for the Japanese people, which is never a good thing. Hopefully this move is only temporary until they build there shares up a bit more.
Hopefully the smartph...
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All of Apples products are set up with high profit margins. They really don't care as much about market share as you might think. Even rumors of cheap iPhones have been partially responsible for driving down its stock price as of late ...
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They have gained 2 percentage points in the US from the 3rd quarter of last year to the 4th quarter of last year...
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ajac09 said:
Japan not missing much LOL
Care to explain? If you were one of the first in line in the UK or Canada to get a new Z10....
We all want to hear why after using BB10 that you think Japan won't miss much...
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