Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile phone company by sales, said it will add the BlackBerry system to its lineup as one of its "preferred consumer operating platforms."
The deal builds on RIM's strategy of expanding into the broader retail consumer market, moving away from its traditional dependence on corporations and government agencies.
It has been seeking to woo general consumers with multimedia-heavy handsets such as the BlackBerry Pearl. More than a third of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company's subscribers are now classified as noncorporate or nongovernment. It had a total of 12 million users at the end of the quarter ended Dec. 1.
"This deepening of the strategic relationship between the two companies will see Vodafone and RIM concentrating on driving continued growth in business segments, and specifically, focusing on growing broader adoption in the consumer segment," the companies said in a statement.
Jens Schulte-Bockum, Vodafone's global director of terminals, said the partnership will allow the companies to deliver simple-to-use services and lower costs. He said he expects consumers to be attracted to the BlackBerry???s messaging and e-mail, Internet access and range of multimedia capabilities including music and imaging functionality.
Source:http://www.forbes.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment