Protecting BlackBerry users

The Jakarta Post   |  Mon, 07/06/2009 8:46 AM  |  Opinion

We don’t think the government’s temporary ban on the distribution of BlackBerry smartphones in Indonesia was influenced by other mobile phone producers attempting to disrupt the marketing of the Canadian product, as some members of the information technology sector have alleged.

The ruling is simply the enforcement of the 1999 consumer protection law which stipulates, among other things, that the suppliers of goods and services that fail to provide after-sales services and do not provide consumers with service or operation manuals in the Indonesian language should be prohibited from marketing their products in the country and must withdraw their products from the local market.

Since this law applies to all producers of goods and services, the government (the ministries of communication and information technology and trade) is obliged to give equal treatment to all mobile phone producers.

We cannot understand why the BlackBerry manufacturer, the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM), has not realized the crucial importance of establishing after-sales service centers in supporting its marketing campaign in the country as its competitors have done.

However, as strong as its competitive edge may be, BlackBerry sales will eventually suffer if users have to go to Singapore for after-sales service, as they have to do now, because BlackBerry is not the only smartphone sold on the domestic market.  

If economies of scale are the main reason behind the RIM decision to delay the establishment of local service centers, they are using a flawed marketing strategy, especially for a new comer such as BlackBerry, which according to RIM, has sold around 300,000 units.

It would have instead been good business sense for RIM to establish a representative office early on, and after-sales service centers at least in Jakarta to support its marketing campaign. Such a move would have assured potential users of RIM’s long-term commitment to Indonesia, which is a huge potential market for such information technology products.

The longer RIM postpones the establishment of service centers the more harmful it will be for BlackBerry marketing because unauthorized service shops with questionable and unreliable services may fill the vacuum.

The only aspect of the ban that might have raised unnecessary questions or suspicions of the real motive behind the measure was related to the timing of the measure. Why indeed was the ban imposed only several years after BlackBerry cell phones had already entered the country?  

RIM’s greatest concern over what it called the massive illegal sales of fake BlackBerry smartphones should have been another compelling factor for the Canadian company to set up a local representative office.

Fake products are not BlackBerry’s monopoly. But a local sales office or service center would help RIM keep itself appraised of the local market demand and preferences and enable it to conduct, together with the government, a market intelligence operation against counterfeit products.

The government is strongly committed to protecting the intellectual property rights of all producers of goods and services but, due to a lack of resources and inadequate institutional capacity, it needs whatever assistance manufacturers or producers can provide to launch a more effective drive against fake products.

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