RIM rolling in EMEA region, adds a million subs in under three weeks

By on Jul 7, 2011 at 7:55 PM
mobile July 7, 2011

Research In Motion on Thursday announced some serious heat in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region — the BlackBerry maker said it recently added more than a million new subscribers in less than three weeks. ”BlackBerry continues momentum across EMEA with 1 Million+ new subscribers added in less than 3 weeks,” RIM posted from its Twitter account. RIM no longer includes subscriber additions or totals in its quarterly earnings reports, but when it last did in the three-month period ending November 2010, the vendor had netted more than 5 million new subscribers for a total of just over 55 million. Last quarter, RIM said it shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones and 500,000 PlayBook tablets despite a very difficult quarter.

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  • Drew

    So, does this mean that RIM will adopt a “Nokia-like” approach and not give a rats ass about North America?? They’re not even looking to catch up let alone compete with other smartphone manufacturers. Fire whomever is in charge of R&D. Why haven’t they figured out that you can NO LONGER announce something and then release in 4-6 months time. You will be left at the starting gate…

    • Steve Jenkins

      Maybe, but i doubt it. The new Bold is going to sell like f’in hot cakes and you can quote me on that.

      • Anonymous

        I have heard from 2 people ( with great knowledge – nudge nudge wink wink ) the exact same thing.

      • TheDogThatDidntBark

        Jury is out.  9 months ago they added 5m new subscribers in three months globally or roughly 1.2m in 3 weeks.  Today they announce “POW” we shipped 1m in three weeks albeit just in EMEA..  I guess the question is what was growth like in NA, LATAM, AsiaPac…….   If its also very positive great, but if its not….. or what if its even negative……One has to ask here is the “KER-ZAM” tweet from them??

      • Steve Jenkins

        I’m definitely not nostradomus, and I agree we will have to wait and see, I do know that RIM will make every single carrier market this phone as the saviour of BlackBerry and this WILL BE the best BlackBerry so far, I say this not to start a flame war, it may not be the BEST phone spec wise out their, but The BlackBerry community, not just fanboys, but corporations, govts, have been un-patiently waiting for this device and will eat them up.

  • BurleyShells

    fck innovation, sell to third-world countries where customers go from using a rock as their mobile phone to the luxurious blackberry!

    • Bullyboyb

      Have you been to third world country? Is Europe, third world? It just shows how the rest of the world thinks differently from America where the iPhone seems to the holy grail. I will school you in consumer economics outside North America.
      If a product fulfils my needs and I can afford to buy it without taking out debt (living beyond my means… Credit crunch anyone?) then that’s the product for me.

      why should I stress about who makes the smartphone I use. Its about which smartphone meets my needs.

      no wonder North America was the catalyst for the credit crunch.

      • COlden

        I think you’re putting too much emphasis on Europe in this EMEA report… 

        As a European this week’s newspaper reports are all about how Android is winning across the board in terms of European sales. iPhone is a strong second. BlackBerry is hardly sold at all in my Western European country, it’s just not offered.

        These figures are probably heavily influenced by Arab countries…

      • Bullyboyb

        It would be nice if you could mention your country. I live in the U.K. I work as part of a large organisation however in my office alone 10 out of 21 employees have bb’s. These are personal phones as the company only gives out dumb phones for calls.
        most of my clients have blackberries. All my friends save 2 have bb’s.
        In the UK they are everywhere.

      • COlden

        Of course you have a lot of BBs, the UK is the 51st state ;)

        What’s the average age of your coworkers? What profession(s) are we talking about? Banking? Law? IT?

        I’m Scandinavian. I don’t expect the Americans on the web to know where that is… :)

  • BB Addict

    but..but…… I thought RIM was dying and half in the ground………????

    BGR with 2 positive RIM posts in such a short period…..

    has hell frozen over?

    • Scott8586

       Brrr.

    • Drew

      Adding a millon subs says nothing about the actual money made from the sales.  I can go to Verizon and walk out with 4 free blackberries.

      • Anonymous

        yea …. price built into the contract.
        You must be American, correct?

      • Applesucksfatties

        Another great comment by the Drewster!!   I bet you have to sign up for a voice AND a data plan for those ‘free’ BlackBerrys.. right?    RIM got their money, Verizon go their money, and you got 4 great phones…    Chances are, you probably walked out with the latest iPhone and the phone condom you need to actually make/receive calls.. ..D..D….D…Drew.

    • http://twitter.com/Poita316 Peter Fox

      It is getting a bit chilly here…
      Maybe BGR is prommised scoops again if they stoped being as biased as hell against Apple and stop bashing anything that isn’t Apple.
      They get scoops from Apple by sucking some Apple wood, maybe this is a way to make up with RIM :P

    • Pippo

      They are afraid to lose 30% of thier readers…the blackberry owners!

      There is no blog, paper, company in the world that can affort to attack 30% of thier clients.

  • Anonymous

    Talk about smoke and mirrors…

    RIM=FAIL

    • Applesucksfatties

      iZombie = DOUCHER

  • Anonymous

    I can’t be the only one wondering how and why this happened.

    • http://www.darrylburma.com Darryl Burma

      do you mean RIM gaining customers or this unexpected article?

      • TheDogThatDidntBark

        ha ha ha – Both!!

  • http://twitter.com/xrbo chri$

    so RIM is not dying. It’s here, loudly. Go on !

  • Drew

    I’d take a cheap ass blackberry too if I lived in those countries and couldn’t afford better phone.  I mean a blackberry is better than a dumbphone, I think.

    • Steve Jenkins

      Ummmm.. last time i checked the fruity toys and the little gay ass green robot were on sale over in Europe, Middle East and Africa too.

      • Zac Caslin

        Maybe but they’re not free like the BB’s are

      • Steve Jenkins

        Wrong. Please refer to Bullboyb’s post. He is correct in saying androids are cheaper and the iPhone and 9780 are very similar (within 20$) in price on most carriers. If you dont have the patience to read it then go to any carrier in Europe, Middle East, or Africa and look at their top tier phones on contract, compare prices, then, put baby powder on your hand, and proceed to slap the living shit out of yourself.

      • PileEmHigh

        Good point Steve.  Seems RIM is accepting it’s no longer an aspirational brand but there’s volume in the entry level “me too” sector of the market.  Nothing wrong with replacing one cheap low spec plastic phone, symbian etc, with another slightly better one.  Curve 8520 anyone?  Heck I guess GM sell far more cars than BMW, LEXUS, Porche, Mercedes put together!! And it didn’t do them any harm did it? Bravo RIM !!

      • Bullyboyb

        Actually androids are cheaper. Was offered £140 cash + free android phone. Any android phone except galaxy s2 to upgrade my contract by phones4u on a 18month £35 tariff.
        I asked for the blackberry torch, they said no unless I have the bold 9700 to trade and I will only get £40 cash for an 18 month £40 contract.

        Go figure…..

      • BIG MIKHAIL

        indeed

    • Applesucksfatties

      From the sound of your comment, you must have been posting it from a dumbphone…..iZombie    

  • Drew

    So wait, they can tell us how many new subscribers they added in the last 2 weeks but they couldn’t give us the number of playbook activations they had?  Are they serious?

    • Applesucksfatties

      I’m guessing because they can report on the # of handsets ACTIVATED by carriers.. or by the # of handsets on data plans….    The only thing they can accurately measure regarding the current version of the PlayBook is how many were shipped (unless they can get the sales data from ALL of their RETAILERS).  I’m guessing once the 4G PlayBooks are released, RIM will be able to produce a more accurate # of tablets sold/activated.  

  • epilogue

    I already commented on this. From my vantage point – I live in Belgium and travel extensively over some European countries, I see more and more blackberries being carried around. By young ppl and business ppl. Just this Tuesday I was on a flight from Brussels to Zurich. On the bus from aircraft to terminal I counted at least 6 bbs in my vicinity (not 1 iPhone). 2 years ago a blackberry was a virtual rarity in Europe.

    I don’t think RIM is dead in any way.

    • Anonymous

      RIM is exploding in Europe. I have a few contacts over there and they said that RIM is the number 1 phone …. then Apple.

      • Johncs154

        Cuz iPhones are more expensive..Now Im no fan-boy, but if the newest version of the iPhone was sold at the same price as those blackberrys im sure they would out sell RIM in no time.

      • http://twitter.com/Poita316 Peter Fox

        This is only the fact in Belgium, where phones are (by law) not being sold with a discount on a contract. In the rest of Europe, you get an iPhone for free on a €30 a month 24 month contract. almost all phones are free with a contract for this amount or higher.

  • Anonymous

    i am not sure what data rates are like in europe but that could be a big plus for rim

    • Bullyboyb

      BB data is unlimited and costs £5 in the U.K. A year ago it was a free bolt on.

      That’s the only unlimited tariff with no throttling or caps.

  • Anonymous

    The RIMpire strikes back!   Who doesn’t love a good comeback from the underdog?

  • http://www.facebook.com/bbahrami Behdad Bahrami

    My dad was telling me all his business contacts in Spain/Germany are recently switching to BB’s and the main reasons are:

     a.CHEAP ROAMING (compressed data) 

    b. BBM lets them text across borders/ continents with all their business contacts in the mid east and north america without the hassle

    the roaming thing is a biggy, i roamed with a BB in the states last yr and it cost me 12 dollars over 7 days (2MB), this yr i took my iphone and it cost 100 for 7 days (12MB)

    • http://twitter.com/Poita316 Peter Fox

      BBM is by far one of the biggest reasons for people to get a Blackberry. This is why Apple launched iMessage. Still,it’s not as allround and wel intergrated as BBM. From BBM you can send all kinds of (multi)media directly from BBM. MMS, foto, video, voice, docs you name it, unlike iMessage where you have to create / find the file then upload it to iMessage. Granted, iMessage has visual options due to the front facing camera. On the other hand, BBM is part of the OS, therfor its there right out of the box, it doesn’t need personal info to use, like whatssap (eg a number) nor do you need to sign up, no exchange of personal info without consent, all you need is a pin. Encryption, encryption, encryption. No one can trace it and when deleted its gone for good. Delivery status, groups for people with similar interest, you name it. It will always be one of Blackberries USP’s

      • Conundrum

        Peter – Totally agree. BBM is a great app.  Though unlike corporate e-mail don’t believe BBM is encrypted as you say?  Are you sure about that? Also though you can delete your end of a BBM conversation it doesn’t wipe from the counterparts device…… so certainly not gone for good as many a celebrity might find to their cost!! Ha Ha.

        The thing that amazes me is that Google haven’t built an equivalent.  They seem ideally placed to do this and must have all the skills and expertise inhouse to do it.  The day they do that I fear for Blackberry.

      • http://twitter.com/Poita316 Peter Fox

        BBM goes over RIM’s servers to, so also one of the most secure messenger services out there.
        No both need to delete, but how long do you save a chat? I kill it after Im done, so IM not worried, but then again I dont talk about weird things. I think :P
        I think everybody thinks whatsapp is a good app to use, but its been proven that it has a big security fault.

    • Anonymous

      yeah I am in Singapore right now and the prepaid plans on my colleagues’ blackberries is easily the best while the ones carrying other smartphones including me can’t get data for nearly as cheap. I am jealous and not surprised at that phenomena.

  • Esbuenodun

    Yea that data compression is a BIG DEAL!!! I have friends that have iphones in europe and the won’t use them when they leave their country. It’s cheaper to buy a prepaid phone. That iphone is pretty but if you cant take her out, whats the point.

    btw that bold 9900 is super sexy. i need that in my life.

  • SniperSniper

    I am just curious, for people in Europe, when you type the EURO sign, instead of a $ sign, do you just press shift 4 as usual, or do you have to do some extra steps to key in a EURO dollar sign?

  • http://profiles.google.com/raytheon117x Brett R

    As far as i know with current BBs on OS6 (my torch at least), the first time you click in the currency key on the keyboard, it asks you what currency symbol you’d like to use as the default, and from there you can pick for quick access. Or you could just hit the Symbols (Sym) key and then the currency symbols are mapped to z, x, c and v.

  • Max

    If the 4th world desert dwellers are just into blackberry, you BB morons know who your cohorts are. You must have the same needs as people who live in manure roofed shacks, eh? Makes sense.

    • Applesucksfatties

      Maxipad….  IMO.. you are in the Top 5 of iZombie douchers that post on iBGR.   Don’t you have a iFart app to download or a phone condom to swap out?   I heard pink leopard print was your style…  while your at it, get in line with iGeller and iEpstein to give Stevie J the ol reach around.. iDoucher…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

    RIM’s biggest mistake was putting their “new” OS on a tablet before their smartphones. Now, the competition is fully aware of QNX capabilities and won’t be caught off guard with it being scaled for a smartphone.  Just plain dumb.  You let all your competitors know what your new smartphone platform will do before you release one. 

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