Leading smartphone manufacturer Samsung has wasted no time in pouncing on struggling counterpart BlackBerry's customers - and is using its weaker competitor's own business strategy to lure them over into its fold.
A day after the announcement that BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) - BlackBerry's previously exclusive and locally popular instant messaging (IM) app - is available free of charge to all Android and iPhone users, Samsung has started enticing BlackBerry customers to say goodbye to their 'Berry and hello to a new Galaxy.
Tech analyst Liron Segev, from TheTechieGuy.com, yesterday picked up on a tweet posted from Samsung Mobile Africa's official account, offering to give BlackBerry customers discounts on new Galaxy devices - plus assistance in installing BBM - when they turf their BlackBerrys in favour of a Samsung Galaxy handset.
At around 10am, @SamsungMobiAfr tweeted: "Trade in your old BlackBerry for a new #Samsung device at a nearest Brand store & we'll download & setup BBM for you. #SmartTrade #BBM4ALL."
This was followed shortly afterwards with clarification: "Please note: Trading in your BlackBerry device will give you a discount on the purchase of a #Samsung #Galaxy device."
BBM bomb
BlackBerry has yet to respond to Samsung's latest marketing salvo, but analysts say the once leading smartphone manufacturer will have to react to what is clearly a direct attack strategy to prey on local BlackBerry patrons, amid ongoing uncertainty around the company's future.
Ofentse Mopedi, ICT analyst at Africa Analysis, says it is a known fact that demand for BlackBerry devices has substantially decreased in recent times - although demand in Africa remains strong (60%-70% of the smartphone market). However, reader feedback and social media sentiment indicate many BlackBerry users have been hanging on to their devices purely for BBM.
The popularity of BBM is undisputed, despite competitors like WhatsApp and ChatON jumping on the IM train. BlackBerry has over 60 million monthly active BBM users, with over 51 million of these using the app an average of 90 minutes a day. While Africa-specific statistics are not available, globally BBM users send and receive over 10 billion messages every day.
This morning, BlackBerry announced there had been over 10 million BBM downloads for Android and iPhone within the first day of the platform opening up.
Preying on the weak?
Mopedi says while Samsung's strategy may be deemed underhanded for many reasons, it may well prove to be a game-changing move for the company in Africa.
Ovum analyst Richard Hurst says it is an interesting move on the part of Samsung - and one that was clearly borne out of the perceived weakness of the BlackBerry brand in the end-user market.
Equity analyst Chris Umiastowski notes, via BlackBerry forum and fan site CrackBerry, that Samsung took the opportunity as far back as August to publicise the fact that BBM would be available to Galaxy owners soon. "They make no mention of Android in their promotion. From their perspective it's better to just attach the BBM brand value to their Galaxy product line-up, not Android as a whole."
He says while it is unlikely Samsung cares much about its customers downloading BBM, it is obvious the company sees an opportunity to get legacy BlackBerry users to migrate to a Galaxy product without losing their "beloved" BBM.
"To be honest, I think this is a smart strategy from Samsung. A huge portion of BlackBerry's subscribers reside in places like Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya, SA, Philippines, and other emerging markets. BBM is hugely popular in these countries, yet the devices people own largely run the legacy Java-powered BlackBerry OS. The app store is pretty much bare compared to BlackBerry 10, and obviously doesn't even come close to what's available in Google Play, or in Samsung's own app store."
Do or die
Umiastowski says Samsung's aggressive tactics will force BlackBerry to compete head-on in the entire platform race, not sit back and rest on the perceived value of BBM. "I think BlackBerry management is guilty of getting too comfortable with how awesome BBM is, not thinking that people would really leave it behind."
Hurst says the interesting thing now will be the counter-measures BlackBerry will deploy in the wake of Samsung's offensive. "They will have to come up with a value proposition to maintain BlackBerry users. Something innovative - or (especially in price-sensitive markets like SA) cheaper pricing."
But, he says, the market should not write off BlackBerry just yet. "There is a lot of decent innovation coming from the company, so it is not going to go gently into the night. It will put up a fight."
In terms of how smart BlackBerry was to give its popular IM platform away, so to speak, Hurst says it cannot be said it was the wrong decision to make. "It was a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. They needed to break through the garden walls, because if they maintained it on their own devices, it would just be stifled of oxygen and die as the number of users declined as people moved to other brands. It was a risk they had to take - and one they will have to manage accordingly."
Umiastowski believes opening up BBM was a no-brainer, despite the obvious risks of losing platform subscribers who migrate to Android. "They should have done it long ago and, if they had, perhaps WhatsApp wouldn't be the market leader today."
Ultimately, he says, BlackBerry now faces a tough reality and the company needs to do more to convince the big (app developer) names to get inside BlackBerry World as a matter of haste.
"If Microsoft can do it with its tiny user base, BlackBerry certainly should be able to do it. The party line about having to wait until these app vendors are ready to support BlackBerry 10 is not going to cut it. This company needs to find a way to realise very fast that they can't afford to take 'no' for an answer."
Samsung had not responded to queries around particular details of its trade-in offer by the time of publication, but Samsung Africa and Samsung SA are expected to issue a combined response soon.
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