Confirmed: BlackBerry to Stop Selling Smartphones in Japan

Looks like the global rollout of BlackBerry’s new flagship smartphones will not extend to the entire globe. Certainly it won’t include Japan.

Confirming news first reported by the Nikkei, a BlackBerry spokeswoman told AllThingsD Thursday that the company is indeed pulling out of the Japanese market — at least for the time being.

“We are in the process of launching BlackBerry 10 globally in key markets, and we are seeing positive demand for the BlackBerry Z10 in countries where it has already launched. Japan is not a major market for BlackBerry, and we have no plans to launch BlackBerry 10 devices there at this time,” spokeswoman Amy McDowell said. “However, we will continue to support BlackBerry customers in Japan.”

The company declined to comment on its plans for other non-critical markets.

A surprising move for BlackBerry, though perhaps it shouldn’t be. Over the past few years, BlackBerry’s market share in Japan has suffered a decline so precipitous that it no longer even ranks by name on comScore’s survey of the top smartphone platforms in country. As of June 2012, BlackBerry was lumped into the research firm’s “Other” category which itself claims only a 0.4 percent share. At the time the survey was conducted, 24 million people in Japan owned smartphones. So, while the country may not be a major market for BlackBerry, it is very much a major smartphone market.

Developing …

Line links up with Japanese operator KDDI to boost visibility of its messaging app

Asia messaging service Line has boosted its visibility in Japan after it inked an agreement with KDDI which will see the app added to the operator’s "au Smart Pass" app promotion service, as analyst Serkan Toto notes.

The Line service is hugely popular in Japan and across Asia — which is said to account for the lion’s share of its 55 million userbase — and its addition to au Smart Pass, which is a KDDI-curated selection of 500 Android apps that users enjoy unlimited access to for a monthly subscription of $4.70 (390 yen), is likely to gain it new sign-ups and increased activity in the country.

Au Smart Pass has 2 million subscribers each of whom will be able download an entirely customised version of Line to their Android device. Furthermore, one of the key additions is a set of unique paid-for emoticons, which users can also gift to a friend.

The concept of exclusive smilies and emoticons may have little appeal in Western markets but, in Japan and other parts of Asia, these kind of virtual goods are hugely popular and lucrative for companies.

Line also offers stickers, which users can add to instant messaging conversations much like emoticons. Proof of the revenue potential can be found in its recently introduced premium sticker collection, which generated $4.4 million within the two months of launch.

The KDDI agreement is another move that sees Line heighten its appeal and monetisation opportunities. Earlier this month it launched a modified version of its service for BlackBerry smartphones, with the Southeast Asian market in mind, while it also made its virtual currency and coupon service available worldwide.

For those seeking to learn more, Japan-based Toto has a detailed explanation of the au Smart Pass service, which was launched March 1.

Image via Flickr / shibainu