BlackBerry (BBRY) announced at yesterday’s launch that the new smartphones based on the BB10 platform will not support the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS).


It became apparent as Rory O'Neill, Vice President of Product & Channel Marketing at BlackBerry, was answering questions related to the BIS service on the BB10 phones and on BB 7 based smartphones.

O’Neill explained that the BB10 smartphones will not come bundled with BIS nor support it. The only service to run on BlackBerry’s infrastructure will be BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and some enterprise related applications.

O’Neill said: “The R59 per month unlimited data for BlackBerry 7 is a proposition that we really believe in. We work very closely with our mobile network partners to keep that proposition in market.

“We’re continuing to innovate BlackBerry 7 and for the segment of the market where social messaging and that experience is really important, we will continue to have, and we will continue to build out new experiences both from a hardware and software perspective.”

So it is not all doom and gloom for African users of BlackBerry as BIS is likely to still be available for BlackBerry 7 based smartphones.

He added that they are in negotiations with mobile providers regarding how to structure BIS related to BlackBerry 7 based smartphones and he also acknowledged the popularity of BIS in South Africa, but does not believe the lack of BIS in BB10 smartphones will hurt their sales.

O’Neill said: “I don’t think it will hurt BlackBerry, to be honest, because I really think they are two different segments of the market and it’s important that we keep both segments served.”

Anecdotal evidence on social networks and various BlackBerry users suggests that the majority of those in Africa will start considering purchasing “cooler” smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy range and Apple’s iPhone because they would nonetheless have to pay for data charges.

chineduace: BB10 will not be running BIS. That is no more monthly supscription of BIS.... Do you understand. All your data consumption would be like every other phone.

amblors:

Av heard the rumour, what's ur source, drop a link.

chineduace: With the new over priced and over hyped BB10, i hope BB lovers know that BIS is not supported on this new flagship from BB. Supsequently it will be migrated to older OS eventually. Nigeria holds the leading market in BB globally. My analysis is that if BIS goes away and since RIM is dead due to name change then BB will follow suit since Nigerians are addicted to data compression and almost unlimited data via BIS. Well i think it's time to move on.
Iphone still operates a closed system and Android is open to everything and everyone. So i guess it's Android all the way. Well this is just my opinion, you are entitled to yours.

walcolm:

very illogical and poorly articulated opinion

jedisco:

Hmm...
Is this the Walcolm I know?

This one mukina is viewing, I'm sure its gonna hit frontpage.

Ileke-IdI:
[size=28pt]Who still uses BB?

This is 2013? [/size]

Ileke-IdI:
Who still uses BB?

This is 2013?

Ileke-IdI:
[size=28pt]Who still uses BB?

This is 2013? [/size]

jedisco:
Over 50% of smartphone users in Nigeria.
Do you have a problem with that?

pDude:


He he he he he. It's already done that

Ileke-IdI:
[size=28pt]Who still uses BB?

This is 2013? [/size]

jedisco:

who exactly is this mukina and what is his/her relationship with seun?

mrkels:
More Like 93% **Smartphone** Users in nigeria ...

sanchez4eva: We are gathered here today to say goodbye to blackberry and RIM....R.I.P BB(No BIS,No Blackberry)

pDude: Just look at the number of people looking into this thread. Den reach 1 million


Sent from blackberry from glo