Canada-based cell phone maker BlackBerry Ltd. launched a budget touchscreen device, the Z3, on Tuesday in Jakarta, in an effort to regain its foothold in the world'€™s fourth most populous nation.

The 5-inch handset, which offers similar features to its high-end sister the Z30, will be sold at a starting price of Rp 2.19 million (US$191) and is set to hit shelves on May 15, targeting Indonesia'€™s growing middle class.

The device will be the first product that BlackBerry has jointly manufactured with Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn, known for producing electronic components for brands like Apple, Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Intel.

BlackBerry executive chairman of the board and CEO John Chen, who took the company'€™s top
position in November last year, said in a limited press briefing after the Z3 launch that his company aimed to return to its heyday in the country.

'€œWe'€™ve been losing market share in the last two years; now I would like to turn that corner,'€ he said.

BlackBerry'€™s market share in Indonesia dropped continually from 43 percent in 2011 to only 13.54 percent last year, according to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Indonesia.

The IDC forecasted that BlackBerry would continue to be dwarfed by the sheer number of Android phones on the market, with their shipment share estimated to drop to 10 percent, IDC Indonesia head of operations Sudev Bangah told The Jakarta Post.

'€œHowever, the launch of the Z3, as a sub-$200 phone, will cause some excitement as customers are allowed a broader base access to OS [operating system] 10,'€ he said. '€œThis device will give a few Android base devices a run for their money.'€

Sudev added that with BlackBerry'€™s strong brand recognition in Indonesia, the company would make the country its final battleground for regaining ground from its iPhone and Android-based rivals.

'€œIndonesia is not one of the top revenue contributors [...] However, it is a very big consumer market,'€ Chen said, adding that Indonesia was among the largest markets for its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application.

He said that besides introducing the Z3 to Indonesian consumers, BlackBerry would also launch the product this year in other six markets across Asia, including the Philippines, India, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Speaking at the product launch, the Communications and Information Ministry'€™s postal and information infrastructure director general, Muhammad Budi Setiawan, said that the government still expected BlackBerry to build a data center in Indonesia, given the fact that the country is one of the firm'€™s largest markets.

'€œTalk of a data center has been around since 2010, and we expect that the discussion will continue,'€ he said, adding that the government would provide a two or three year transition period for the company to prepare.

Chen said, however, that the company would not build a data center in the country in the near future, adding that it is currently focusing on being a profitable company.

BlackBerry suffered $423 million in losses in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year [Dec. 2013 to Feb. 2014], with its revenue falling to $976 million, the lowest since late 2007.

'€œBut, sometime in the next fiscal year, we will be profitable,'€ Chen said, adding that BlackBerry had successfully reduced its operational costs to $775 million under his leadership, from $1.1 billion previously.

Popular

Ministry orders remote working for civil servants to help ease traffic congestion

Netanyahu vows victory after Iran strikes, fears of wider conflict grow

18 people killed in South Sulawesi landslide