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When the Blackberry was launched in India, it was pegged as a big, black, and expensive device for emailing. And if you wanted, you could also make a phone call from it. 

On Tuesday, 7 June, 2005 Bharti and Research in Motion (RIM) did a volte face. They went ahead and launched the 7100g. And claimed openly that-unlike the previous models which were email devices with phone functionality-the new, silver-colored device is a phone with all the Blackberry features. Also, it will retail at relatively economical price band of around Rs 20,000. 

Atul Bindal, group chief marketing officer and director mobility, Bharti Cellular told V&D that Bharti was evaluating other handset manufacturers so that the consumer may use the Blackberry e-mail service from third-party handsets. Asked about the time frame for roll out this facility to the consumers, he said it would depend on rollouts by the competition.

Bindal added, "We have a sub Rs 10,000 offering too. This is an introductory offer and will continue to be available to our consumers." The offer is available on model number 6230, which comes in a monochrome screen. 

But even with the sub Rs 20,000 category, Blackberry is breaking new ground in India. K Krishnan, CEO Delhi circle, Bindal, and Lo-all three confirmed to VOICE&DATA that this move was in response to the market movements. It is significant that two-thirds of its sales in India were to professional, individual consumer-not enterprises.

Bindal also told V&D that with newer, lower priced models Bharti is trying to cover all segments of the business/professional users. Though they started with targeting the ultras in India, with the best-selling models globally, the companies will now target each part of the business and professional user segment with product specific to it. 

However, Lo was very specific that Blackberry was not moving towards a mass product. He said, "Blackberry is not a mass product. The new models don't have features like MP3 players, which characterize mass products."

Alok Singh