92% of BlackBerry Sales Growth is Outside the U.S.

After chewing through some of the numbers in RIM’s quarterly conference call yesterday, one report has figured out that 92% of BlackBerry sales growth comes from outside the U.S. The U.S., U.K. and Canada combined made up 56% of RIM’s revenue, while the U.S. alone was 34%. In terms of how much of an improvement that is historically, US revenue wen up 13% from the same time last year ($1.65 billion to $1.87 billion), even though overall RIM’s revenue grew 89%, or $2.6 billion year over year. That being said, the U.S. only accounted for 8% of RIM’s increased revenue while the rest of the world grabbed 92%.

Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis has certainly tried to defend RIM’s international strategy, citing the global necessity for 2G-friendly smartphones, while the press tends to hammer them for failing to compete with Android and iPhone in North America. Now, whether you think this trend is a good thing or bad thing is your call; as sad as it might be living in North America and seeing all of my BlackBerry buddies switch over to Android, it looks like RIM stands to make a lot more money by providing cheap, accessible smartphones for emerging markets. Besides, as a Canadian company, BlackBerry wouldn’t have had such a strong presence in the U.S. if they weren’t thinking about a global market. Though their smartphone picture is shakey for the time being, Nokia became king of the hill for gunning for the bottom in emerging markets with feature phones, and there’s no reason BlackBerry can’t do it with smartphones.

Maybe I’m a little too optimistic, but as long as RIM continues to post record quarters, I’m wouldn’t pay the doom-criers much heed, especially when once iPhone and Android have maxed out their North American expansion, they find most markets elsewhere in the world captured by RIM.

[via Asymco]

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

http://bit.ly/samirsshah ???? ???

To RIM:

and that is THE PROBLEM and not THE SOLUTION.

Technology is trickle down from US to everywhere else (Especially in mobiles and computers) and when an Indian youth wants to graduate to a smartphone he will most likely go to Android because of its openness (can get an app from anywhere and there are lots of free apps) and or just because that Android is very popular in US.

As an example, Orkut social network was very popular in India but Facebook has overtaken it and one of the selling points of facebook is that it has been perfected in th US.

You cite an example of Nokia. Nokia is a failure. I usually do not write about Nokia because of trolls but the fact is that Nokia is a failure.

2G smartphone is a misnomer. The moment 3G starts becoming affordable in India, touch Smartphones based on Android will sweep India.

An average Joe in India does not need the great keyboards RIM has but needs full screens Androids have for better email, video etc. For him on-screen keyboard is just fine.

Although I am an Indian, emerging markets are the past. Look at Netflix which by looking at future now has a place in S & P 500 and Eastman Kodak, once a giant, is being thrown out of S & P 500 as it could not cope up with the future.

Again using Kodak analogy, Kodak thought that emerging markets like India would take a long time to move to digital photography and she can sell films there, but the move to digital, even in India, was swift and nothing short of massacre for Kodak.

Do not just meet YOUR customers, meet Apple customers, Android customers, read blogs. It is evident to many bloggers that RIM is a dinosaur, seek them out and get from them the reasons why. I have done my best to explain but I may not be able to articulate all of my intuition into reasons.
http://bit.ly/samirsshah ???? ???

To RIM:

and that is THE PROBLEM and not THE SOLUTION.

Technology is trickle down from US to everywhere else (Especially in mobiles and computers) and when an Indian youth wants to graduate to a smartphone he will most likely go to Android because of its openness (can get an app from anywhere and there are lots of free apps) and or just because that Android is very popular in US.

As an example, Orkut social network was very popular in India but Facebook has overtaken it and one of the selling points of facebook is that it has been perfected in th US.

You cite an example of Nokia. Nokia is a failure. I usually do not write about Nokia because of trolls but the fact is that Nokia is a failure.

2G smartphone is a misnomer. The moment 3G starts becoming affordable in India, touch Smartphones based on Android will sweep India.

An average Joe in India does not need the great keyboards RIM has but needs full screens Androids have for better email, video etc. For him on-screen keyboard is just fine.

Although I am an Indian, emerging markets are the past. Look at Netflix which by looking at future now has a place in S & P 500 and Eastman Kodak, once a giant, is being thrown out of S & P 500 as it could not cope up with the future.

Again using Kodak analogy, Kodak thought that emerging markets like India would take a long time to move to digital photography and she can sell films there, but the move to digital, even in India, was swift and nothing short of massacre for Kodak.

Do not just meet YOUR customers, meet Apple customers, Android customers, read blogs. It is evident to many bloggers that RIM is a dinosaur, seek them out and get from them the reasons why. I have done my best to explain but I may not be able to articulate all of my intuition into reasons.