The troubled smartphone maker has a new challenge on the horizon, with
data from its biggest developer showing that apps are far more popular
on its poorer selling BB10 handsets
Blackberry's developer community have the best overview of how its users are reacting to the ongoing financial drama at the company.
Hong Kong-based S4BB is the biggest Blackberry app developer, by some estimates its apps comprise one-third of all those available in the BlackBerry app store.
The company's handset sales and revenues have plummeted to seven-year lows, and customers seem to be rejecting the firm's touchscreen handsets that run the BB10 operating system.
Only 1.3m BB10 devices were sold in the first three months of 2014, compared to 3.4m of the older phones running BB7, with more customers still choosing the more familiar fixed-keyboard model.
S4BB's chief executive Patrick Kosiol told the Guardian that when it comes to apps, at least, BB10 is working well - and there's no drop off in sales compared to six months ago.
"They have not moved up by much, but also not moved down even though BlackBerry's market share was sliding a bit on the consumer side," Kosiol said. The explanation is that market share is about sales, not installed base.
Data shared with The Guardian shows the comparative share of app downloads and sales. S4BB has a lot of free apps and paid-for apps, but what's clear is that BB10 makes up a significant amount of both.
The popularity of apps on BB10 (which runs the Z10, Q10, Q5 and Q30 phones) is borne out by two set of data from Kosiol:
Top 5 popular devices 6 months ago: Z10 (17%), 9900 (12%), 9320 (11%), Q10 (10%), 9790 (6%)
Top 5 popular devices now: Z10 (42%), Q10 (18%), Q5 (8%), Z30 (8%), 9900 (5%)
In other words, BB10 devices have gone from being 27% of the top five devices, to 76%. (The figures don't add up to 100% because it's only the top five devices.)
Top 5 countries 6 months ago: Indonesia (43%), South Africa (9%), UK (9%), Canada (8%), US (7%)
Top 5 countries now: Indonesia (24%), Canada (11%), US (9%), Saudi Arabia (8%), UK (7%)
On this data, Indonesia remains a core market for the company, and this is borne out by its geographical revenue split, though Canada and Saudi Arabia are undergoing a revival of Blackberry app use. (Counterintuitively, the trends in BlackBerry's geographical revenues show that, perhaps, Europe is still its biggest source of revenue.)
What does Kosiol think of BlackBerry's new focus on corporate customers? How will that affect his business?
"Firstly, BlackBerry needs to return to profitability as soon as possible. Without profitability it’s hard to compete in any market. That counts for BlackBerry as well as for us as independent app creators. I believe in John Chen and his strategy, and all the dedicated folks of Team BlackBerry.
"In our view, the change in focus does not have a negative effect on our business - on the contrary, I believe the sharpened focus on the key strengths BlackBerry devices bring to the table will benefit the brand and its image worldwide."
He adds: "Obviously, we at S4BB Limited are mainly targeting consumers, and in most parts of the world consumers are very brand-sensitive. A stronger BlackBerry brand - even with a strong focus on enterprise and security - will benefit the consumer business in the long term by offering a very distinct differentiation to other platforms and devices.
"All in all, I believe focusing on corporate markets is good for BlackBerry’s business from a financial and branding standpoint, and it will have a positive affect on our business as app creators. We expect a lot from the upcoming BlackBerry Z3 launch and believe it will drive revenue on our (consumer) side significantly."
• Millions of Android app downloads infected with cryptocoin-mining code
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Hong Kong-based S4BB is the biggest Blackberry app developer, by some estimates its apps comprise one-third of all those available in the BlackBerry app store.
The company's handset sales and revenues have plummeted to seven-year lows, and customers seem to be rejecting the firm's touchscreen handsets that run the BB10 operating system.
Only 1.3m BB10 devices were sold in the first three months of 2014, compared to 3.4m of the older phones running BB7, with more customers still choosing the more familiar fixed-keyboard model.
S4BB's chief executive Patrick Kosiol told the Guardian that when it comes to apps, at least, BB10 is working well - and there's no drop off in sales compared to six months ago.
"They have not moved up by much, but also not moved down even though BlackBerry's market share was sliding a bit on the consumer side," Kosiol said. The explanation is that market share is about sales, not installed base.
Data shared with The Guardian shows the comparative share of app downloads and sales. S4BB has a lot of free apps and paid-for apps, but what's clear is that BB10 makes up a significant amount of both.
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| S4BB app sales by device model, March 2014. Source: S4BB |
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| S4BB app downloads by operating system for March 2014 Photograph: S4BB/PR |
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What does Kosiol think of BlackBerry's new focus on corporate customers? How will that affect his business?
"Firstly, BlackBerry needs to return to profitability as soon as possible. Without profitability it’s hard to compete in any market. That counts for BlackBerry as well as for us as independent app creators. I believe in John Chen and his strategy, and all the dedicated folks of Team BlackBerry.
"In our view, the change in focus does not have a negative effect on our business - on the contrary, I believe the sharpened focus on the key strengths BlackBerry devices bring to the table will benefit the brand and its image worldwide."
He adds: "Obviously, we at S4BB Limited are mainly targeting consumers, and in most parts of the world consumers are very brand-sensitive. A stronger BlackBerry brand - even with a strong focus on enterprise and security - will benefit the consumer business in the long term by offering a very distinct differentiation to other platforms and devices.
"All in all, I believe focusing on corporate markets is good for BlackBerry’s business from a financial and branding standpoint, and it will have a positive affect on our business as app creators. We expect a lot from the upcoming BlackBerry Z3 launch and believe it will drive revenue on our (consumer) side significantly."
• Millions of Android app downloads infected with cryptocoin-mining code
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