I don’t know much about the Brazil or Latin America BlackBerry market but Miguel pointed me to a source that claims RIM will be announcing a new manufacturing plant there tomorrow. BlackBerry World Br claims that RIM reached an agreement with Flextronics in Brazil to start manufacturing devices in Sao Paulo. This would expand RIM’s operations outside of Canada and Mexico and could be an solid move for RIM.
The first device to be made in Brazil will be the BlackBerry Curve 8520 which is a starter BlackBerry with a low cost. It should be interesting to see if this rumor pans out…
AJ Not Registered
Posted: March 10, 2010 at 6:22 PM EST
this will be great for them and us here in latin america… for example Venezuela it is one of the first consumers of Blackberrys in Latin america. will be a relief for us, and cheaper when the time comes to bring new phones.. they shoudl bconsider as well put at least 1 customer center there.. venezuelans had the fever with the BB.
Diego Nei Not Registered
Posted: March 10, 2010 at 6:57 PM EST
Tell me about it! I will be able to get half my friends to join the chear joy of BlackBerry!
We have a large market, both consumer and business wise. Navita (you know them, the guys from the Translator app in Appworld) made a trade of selling the BES solution to big corps in São Paulo.
The consumer market is looking for phones that will do more: most people are deluded with the ‘xing ling’ phones with TV that break in weeks and waste your money and are ready to jump into smartphones.
Carriers are not strong when it comes to BlackBerry and we see no ads AT ALL. Shame on them, as very very soon Brasil will be just as anywhere: data plans being where the real money is.
I disagree with the strategy thou. I would, together with the factory, install a Latin America NOC and deal with the carriers so they drop BIS to something closer to what people pay in the US/UK. Nobody would have a good reason to get another phone after that, since general dataplans would be as cheap as BIS.
Also, only 8520 is aiming too low. 9700 should go into production line as well. Worse can happen is RIM exporting products that costed them less than usual (they would not come here if labor was as expensive as, woud they?). OI (a local carrier) would love bragging about offering unlocked 9700s. Claro’s getting the device but their service… well…
Great news indeed.