RIM Expects BlackBerry Sales to Double in Asia Next Year

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

RIM Expects BlackBerry Sales to Double in Asia Next Year

6:00 am on December 26, 2006 | Category: Business, Mobile Devices, Cell Phones, PDAs

Research In Motion Ltd. is expecting its sales in the Asian market to double in the next 12 months, after the company launches its popular BlackBerry device in China in early 2007.

RIM co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, said in a recent Reuters interview that the company is hoping for regulatory approval for the Chinese launch sometime in the first quarter, after which China Mobile will begin selling the handy wireless email devices.

“Currently we have 30 carrier partners we’ve launched in 17 countries,” Balsillie said in an interview at the ITU World 2006 forum in Hong Kong. “We’d like to add another 15 to 20 carriers in the next year.”

“We’d like to keep up around 100 percent growth in the area,” Balsille went on to say of Asia in particular. “The opportunity is fantastic. It’s the fastest growing region in the world for us. It’s an inevitability in my mind that the Asian market is going to really surpass other markets. It’s just a question of time.”

Although the Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM doesn’t provide a public breakdown of sales by region, it reported impressive second-quarter revenues totaling $658.5 million, or an increase of 34% over the same period a year previous.