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BlackBerry is hard at work trying to regain relevance with just-revealed smartphones running the company's new operating system but according to a new report, they'll be doing so without the help of the Japanese market. That's because the company formerly known as Research in Motion has decided not to bring the new Z10 and Q10 phones to the country.
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According to a report from Reuters, the Nikkei business daily said BlackBerry simply couldn't justify the cost of modifying the operating system to support Japanese characters. The publication further points out that BlackBerry's market share has fallen to just 0.3 percent. At one time, it was as high as five percent.
A comScore survey conducted in June 2012 showed there are roughly 24 million smartphone users in Japan meaning there's clearly a market for handsets - maybe just not from BlackBerry.
The struggling Canadian handset maker will continue to offer support for existing BlackBerry users, the report noted. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the news to All Things D, saying BlackBerry was indeed pulling out of the Japanese market - at least for the time being. The spokesperson said Japan simply was not a major market for BlackBerry.
One has to wonder if the company is preparing to make similar decisions based on language restrictions or low market share in other parts of the world. The company declined to comment on plans for other non-critical markets.
SOURCE: Shawn Knight
TechSpot
TechSpot
