{"id":48670,"date":"2013-10-31T13:43:01","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T11:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=48670"},"modified":"2013-11-01T09:08:17","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T07:08:17","slug":"blackberry-losing-lustre-among-sa-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/48670\/blackberry-losing-lustre-among-sa-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"BlackBerry losing lustre among SA youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

While BlackBerry<\/a> remains the most widely used handset\u00a0among\u00a0South African students, new research finds that its future in that demographic is less rosy.<\/p>\n

This was among the findings of the SA High-tech Student 2013 research study, released on Thursday (31 October) by World Wide Worx<\/a> and Student Brands.<\/p>\n

BlackBerry has been\u00a0synonymous in SA with\u00a0<\/em>affordability thanks to its BlackBerry Internet and messaging service (BIS<\/a> and BBM<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Sunday Times Generation Next 2013 Brand Survey Awards recently revealed\u00a0BlackBerry to be the coolest brand in South Africa among the country\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n

The latest survey\u00a0conducted among all universities and colleges across South Africa, included interviews with 1,435 students.<\/p>\n

It found that more than half (57%) of students used a BlackBerry handset, with Nokia a distant second at 20%, with Samsung third (14%), and the iPhone fourth at 5%.<\/p>\n

\u201cA critical question for cellphone brands is not necessarily who is using the device right now, but what they plan to buy next,\u201d said Arthur Goldstuck<\/a>, managing director of World Wide Worx.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings in that regard were startling, and send a message to manufacturers about what students want from a phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only 15% of respondents said\u00a0they wanted to buy a BlackBerry as their next device. As many as 40% said they wanted an iPhone next, while 29% would prefer a Samsung.<\/p>\n

Nokia fell back to only 8%. The prospects for less popular brands showed slight improvement, with Sony moving from 1% of current usage to 4% of planned usage, and HTC from 1% to 3%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean they will in fact move to the iPhone,\u201d said Daryl Bartkunsky<\/a>, managing director of Student Brands, the student marketing specialists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an aspirational phone, but one they can\u2019t afford, so many will go with the low-end BlackBerry because of the cost of the phone and the affordability of BlackBerry Internet access on the older phones. Low-cost Samsung and Nokia smartphones will also benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instant messaging<\/strong><\/p>\n

Among IM apps, WhatsApp dominates, used by 79% of students participating in the survey, with BBM used by 57% of respondents. Facebook Messenger claimed 45%, and Mxit 28%.<\/p>\n

More on \u00a0BlackBerry and social media<\/h3>\n

Social media helps SA student studies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Why BlackBerry dominates SA smartphone market<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Wait, BlackBerry is growing?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Why BlackBerry is \u201ccool\u201d in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The sickest telecoms operator in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While BlackBerry remains the most widely used handset among South African students, new research finds that its future is less rosy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1625,45,26,209,1573,52,6939,2118,607],"class_list":["post-48670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-bbm","tag-facebook","tag-headline","tag-iphone","tag-mxit","tag-samsung","tag-student-brands","tag-whatsapp","tag-world-wide-worx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48670","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48670"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48746,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48670\/revisions\/48746"}],"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=48670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}