RIM expects sales volumes to rise following price cuts

BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM), which recently cut prices of a few of its smartphone devices, expects the move would boost its sales by about 25-30 per cent in the highly competitive Indian handset market.

The Canadian company based out of Waterloo is struggling against stiff competition from Apple's iPhone and the Android-based smartphones globally, and considers India as one of focus markets where lowering prices would be of help in reaching more customers.

According to Sunil Dutt, MD, RIM India, who took over the company just a few months back, speaking in an exclusive interaction with The Times of India, said more price cuts could be made as the brand gained the benefit of economies of scale higher sales. The lead players in business, Samsung and Nokia, however, said they were not looking to slash prices and would rather focus on widening their product portfolios.

"The objective is to reach out to more consumers and, therefore, make our devices affordable for both the consumer segment as well as for our enterprise customers," Dutt told TOI.

The company cut prices of select models by up to 26 per cent suggesting it was effecting a change in India strategy. According to analysts, the average price of a BlackBerry smartphone was Rs21,000, which was extremely steep as against other brands in the market.

According to G Rajeev, senior market analyst, mobile devices and tablets, IDC India, the price cuts would give RIM volumes but it was not likely to have any impact on market shares.