Blackberry goodness in Japan!
I love BlackBerry smart phones - thing is, they’re not just phones, it’s a phone-organizer-email device-web browser all in one. It’s like the PDA but way better. You can’t readily find them in Asia, but they have stomped over Europe, US and Canada (its country of origin) and are selling very, very well especially to people who depends on mobile/web communication who is on the go.
It’s therefore, great news that DoCoMo, Japan’s largest telecommunication operator, has brought the BlackBerry into the Far East. They are partnering BlackBerry to bring consumers a GSM / WCMDA “worldphone” versions of the addictive handhelds. And the agreement was set in stone last Autumn in 2006. Read more about the partnership here and here.
It’s undeniable that BlackBerries smart phones will definitely be larger than the usual Japanese phones (not to mention slightly heavier), some questions have arised regarding its sellability in Japan. In my opinion as a meddler of BlackBerry (for a few hours), I think it’ll be just fine - It will sell in Japan, especially when it’s comparatively small to have a phone, a web mail device, an organizer all into one and being the tech savvy people that most Japanese people are, they will most probably fall for the Blackberry’s usability and style.
It’s latest BlackBerry Pearl is sleek and professional (and the smallest Smart Phone in the world). It’s most useful for executives on the move and what’s more, the fact that Blackberry Pearl is the smallest SmartPhone would appeal to the Japanese crowd almost instantly.
I guess a lot will still remain to be seen with time since the deal between DoCoMo and Blackberry was just quite recent. I would be curious to know how the BlackBerry is going to pack thousands of keys necessary to represent all those Japanese glyphs on their interface.
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