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BlackBerry Focuses on Emerging Markets With Q5
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BlackBerry is counting on growth in emerging markets such as Brazil and Indonesia with a cheaper smartphone and a plan to expand the popular instant-messaging system that helped drive growth in those countries.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company yesterday said it will bring BlackBerry Messenger, a free service that generates more than 10 billion messages a day from its 60 million users, to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and devices powered by Google Inc.’s Android platform this summer. The plan risks loosening the company’s grip on one of its most valuable services, while helping expand the BlackBerry 10 platform and sales of the lower-priced Q5 against cheaper Android devices, said Kevin Stadtler, a BlackBerry investor.