The Enduring Popularity of BlackBerry and Network Effects
In 2009, BlackBerry owned 20% of the global smartphone market. Since then its market share has plummeted to less than 1%, and in countries like the United States the device is extremely rare. However that is not the whole story. The most popular smartphone in South Africa is the Blackberry Curve 8520. In Nigeria BlackBerry owns 40% of the market. How can this be? The answer is partly due to network effects.
The BlackBerry Messenger application allows users to send and receive messages for free. Since a large portion of the market owns a BlackBerry, it has a very high reservation price due to direct benefit effects. The more people that own a BlackBerry, the more valuable the application is for everyone. In order to get a user to switch from BlackBerry, the new system has to be so much better that it is worth spending the extra money on all the messages to people that still have a BlackBerry. So how long will this last for? Will people in South Africa, Nigeria, and other countries switch from BlackBerry once their old phones stop working? If the price of the phones is low enough and the price of data is high enough, then they will be inclined to keep with the current technology, despite what the rest of the world thinks.
The BlackBerry has also retained popularity because it is a status symbol in parts of Africa. This is more of an information-type effect, as the value of the phone is increased by the perception by the population. So when people are choosing a new phone they may be more inclined to follow the local crowd instead of the global one.
http://theconversation.com/who-wants-a-blackberry-these-days-millions-in-africa-and-asia-36685