BlackBerry to cease selling smartphones in Japan

February 8th, 2013, 21:53 Posted By: wraggster

Decision made as a result of low market share and high cost of modifying devices for local market.
BlackBerry has stated that it is to stop selling smartphones in Japan, citing low market share and high costs of modification for the local market as its main reasons, the Nikkei newspaper has reported.
According to the newspaper, BlackBerry’s market share has dropped from five per cent at its peak to a mere 0.3 per cent at the end of 2012.
However, while the manufacturer stated that its BlackBerry 10 based smartphones will not be launched in Japan, it did confirm that it will continue to offer support to its existing customers in the country.
"Japan is not a major market for BlackBerry, and we have no plans to launch BlackBerry 10 smartphones there at this time," the company confirmed in an emailed statement.
While BlackBerry may not be faring so well in Japan, the firm claimed earlier this week that it hadbroken its previous sales records in the UK and Canada with the launch of its Z10 smartphone.
Speaking yesterday (February 7th) BlackBerry president and CEO Thorsten Heins, revealed: "In Canada, yesterday was the best day ever for the first day of a launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone. In fact, it was more than 50 per cent better than any other launch day in our history in Canada.
"In the UK, we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone." he added.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...n-japan/020541

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