{"id":30886,"date":"2013-01-30T18:05:29","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T16:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=30886"},"modified":"2013-01-31T10:26:03","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T08:26:03","slug":"blackberry-10-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/30886\/blackberry-10-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"BlackBerry 10 in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

BlackBerry<\/a>-maker Research in Motion (RIM<\/a>) announced the pricing and availability of its new BlackBerry Z10 today (30 January 2013), but said that they couldn\u2019t confirm when it\u2019s expected to come to South Africa or what it will cost yet.<\/p>\n

However, 8ta<\/a> confirmed today that it would offer BlackBerry 10 devices through its stores from 1 March 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Along with the Z10, a second BlackBerry 10 device that boasts a hardware keyboard, which BlackBerry is calling the BlackBerry Q10, will start to become available from April 2013.<\/p>\n

Questioned about local availability Rory O\u2019Neill, VP of product & channel marketing at BlackBerry for EMEA, explained that there are three factors that determine when a device is ready to launch in a market:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Government regulations;<\/li>\n
  2. Lab testing (BlackBerry has 150 labs around the world with various carriers, O\u2019Neill said); and<\/li>\n
  3. Commercial readiness<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    O\u2019Neill indicated that government regulations aren\u2019t an area of concern for the launch of BlackBerry 10 in South Africa, which leaves testing and commercial factors.<\/p>\n

    \"Rory

    Rory O’Neill<\/p><\/div>\n

    Although O\u2019Neill did not wish to elaborate further, it is difficult not to connect the dots to the BlackBerry data plans in South Africa that are still in flux.<\/p>\n

    Industry speculation suggests that the flat-rated R59\/month for BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS<\/a>) that has been so popular in South Africa will not exist in its current form on BlackBerry 10 devices.<\/p>\n

    When asked, O\u2019Neill said that they aren\u2019t ready to discuss BlackBerry data plans in South Africa yet as they are still talking through the commercial terms with carriers.<\/p>\n

    It seems unlikely that BlackBerry 10 will launch in South Africa before the details around BIS are hashed out with our mobile network operators.<\/p>\n

    That said, 8ta<\/a> confirmed today that it would offer BlackBerry 10 devices through its stores from 1 March 2013.<\/p>\n

    International launch, pricing<\/h3>\n

    Elsewhere in the world, the BlackBerry Z10 is expected to become available from Thursday (31 January 2013), with the Canadian launch set for 5 February 2013, O\u2019Neill said.<\/p>\n

    Asked about pricing, O\u2019Neill said that when the device launches in the UK tomorrow and be included in contracts that run from \u00a336 to \u00a342 per month.<\/p>\n

    In the US the BlackBerry Z10 is expected to cost $199 when subsidised on a contract, and $599 when bought off-contract. As per the US norm, these prices exclude sales tax.<\/p>\n

    Africa important to BlackBerry<\/h3>\n

    While O\u2019Neill said he couldn\u2019t get into specifics about African and South African launch dates, he said that Africa is important to BlackBerry.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe have great customers here,\u201d O\u2019Neill said.<\/p>\n

    He added that by any measure, Africa is the fastest growing smartphone market in the world.<\/p>\n

    BlackBerry is the biggest smartphone platform in South Africa and Nigeria, while Nigeria is the second-fastest growing market next to China, O\u2019Neill said.<\/p>\n

    More news on BlackBerry<\/h3>\n

    BlackBerry 10 gets big-name music, video partners<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

    BlackBerry 10 SA launch window<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    BlackBerry 10 in SA: more operators confirmed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    RIM\u2019s big BlackBerry comeback<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Research in Motion has revealed pricing and launch dates for the BlackBerry Z10, and a launch window for the BlackBerry Q10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[161,2602,26,157],"class_list":["post-30886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-blackberry","tag-blackberry-10","tag-headline","tag-rim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30886"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30920,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30886\/revisions\/30920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}