BlackBerry Ltd Targets SME Segment, Partners With Samsung

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BlackBerry is now focusing on small- and medium-sized enterprises in India after making a mark in the country’s enterprise market with its security and mobile device management solutions, Sunil Lalvani, BlackBerry, Operation Head in India, told the Economic Times. In India, the company is now targeting the seven million small and medium enterprises with its BES12 Cloud service.

BlackBerry to work with Samsung

Lalvani said the company has entered into an agreement with Samsung to push revenues from the software and service segment in the country. BlackBerry and Samsung are on the verge of finalizing a deal to integrate the marketing teams of the Korean company’s KNOX device security system with Black-Berry’s sales force. Lalvani said that wherever Samsung needs security for positioning its device, BlackBerry will help out.

Lalvani said the Canadian company holds a 40% share of India’s enterprise segment, which includes 7,000 large enterprises. He noted that BlackBerry’s market share has been driven by its latest cross-platform BES12 solution with the Android platform being the top contributor. The strategy adopted by the Canadian smartphone maker to focus on enterprises seems to be working in favor of the company around the globe, including in India.

According to Lalvani, customers will benefit from having zero capital expenditures. Additionally, other features such as BBM Meeting and BBM Protected are also seeing higher demand in the country.

Carrier billing model a hit

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is seeing an increase in the carrier billing model, in which the charges are clubbed with the operator’s bill and advanced SIM-based licensing that allow corporate users to sign for its service for a fixed monthly fee, says the report. BlackBerry is working in collaboration with Vodafone and Idea Cellular and is looking to work with two more operators in the next few months. With the help of the carrier billing model, the company can access more mid-market and SMEs in India.

BlackBerry India garnered high double-digit growth in the software and services revenue in the three months that ended on Feb. 28, compared to 20% around the world globally. For the company, software amounted to 58% of revenue, while hardware made up the remaining. BlackBerry posted a net profit of $28 million in the previous quarter, compared to a $148 million loss in the year-ago period.

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