Research in Motion (RIM) announced plans to sell BlackBerry products into the Scandinavian market.
The company will target Sweden initially, and acknowledges that the iPhone has achieved near-domination in the region. "It is a very tough market, but we love challenges," Paul Lucier, European manager of RIM, told the news agency TT as reported by the Swedish online service The Local.
While the majority of Swedish residents are aware via the media of BlackBerry, the company is keen to present in more detail the benefits of its technology over rivals, such as Apple's iPhone. RIM is expected to highlight the key strengths of user data being transported via RIM servers, and thereby being more secure, and the fact that most BlackBerry devices have real keyboards as against touchscreens.
"Many mobile phone users today seem to have to compromise when they use a touch-screen mobile. I know for sure there is a large number of people who prefer using normal keys on the handset," Lucier said.
RIM's adventure into Scandinavia comes after the company experienced network problems last week that slowed email deliveries to many subscribers to the service, and only a month after a problems that affected an estimated 50 million Blackberry users.
However, despite the company losing market share in key countries, like the United States, RIM is growing its base in the UK and is said to be experiencing strong sales in countries of high wealth. The United Arab Emirates for example showed a strong quarter of growth, up 181 per cent to 1.4 million units shipped in the region.
For more:
- see this The Local article
- see this ZDNet article
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