Business Smartphones in Nigeria BlackBerry babes

　　Its devices are still popular there, but Africa won&apost save RIM

　　"DO YOU know how many times you have embarrassed me because you have rused to buy me a BlackBerry?" Keisha screams in a dusty car park, jabbing her boyfriend&aposs chest. Daniel says he can&apost afford it until next month. It is the final straw for Keisha.

　　This is a scene from "BlackBerry Babes", a Nigerian film about women wooing men into buying them such a smartphone. The plot may be absurd, but its sense of fashion is spot on. RIM, the maker of the device, may get clobbered elsewhere in the world (its market share in America has dropped to 1.6%), but in Nigeria BlackBerrys are still hot.

　　The country&aposs obsession with BlackBerrys is part of a wider trend: although the market share of smartphones is still small, they are becoming more popular all over Africa. They allow those unable to afford computers to browse the internet for a few dollars a month. Thumb-tapping phone users generate 67% of online searches in Nigeria. More than 4m of its citizens own a smartphone, about 4% of mobile subscribers.

　　If half of these use a BlackBerry, it is because RIM has managed to attract the younger set, says Nicholas Jotischky, an analyst at Informa, a market researcher. Users particularly fancy the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service, which allows them to send texts for nothing. "I have a BlackBerry to talk to friends—and boys. If you have a BlackBerry people see you in a certain light," says Diana Ogwuegbu, a student in Lagos, who has hundreds of BBM friends. Savvy businesses use BBM to market their products.

　　BlackBerrys are quite secure, but RIM&aposs market share is not. Although Nokia, another troubled phonemaker, still boasts high sales figures in Africa, it is Chinese firms such as Huawei, ZTE and Tecno which are more likely to erode RIM&aposs market share: they offer cheaper handsets and smartphones with two SIM cards (which allows customers to use two different networks—handy in a country where wireless service is unreliable). RIM may also suffer as Nigerian operators start to offer Apple&aposs iPhone.

　　So Nigeria, or Africa for that matter, is unlikely to save RIM. For that, other things have to go right, in particular the launch of devices that use the new BlackBerry 10 software in January. Nollywood may soon have to use another storyline: being spurned for still using a BlackBerry.

　　【中文对照翻译】

　　商业 智能手机在尼日利亚 黑莓女孩

　　黑莓手机在这里依然畅销，但非洲不会拯救RIM

　　在一个脏兮兮的停车场，凯莎猛的捶打着男友的胸膛，大声尖叫，"你知道么? 就因为你不愿给我买黑莓手机,我老是被人看不起。 丹尼尔说下个月他就能把钱凑够。 这也是凯莎最后一根救命稻草了。

　　这是尼日利亚电影"黑莓女孩"中的一个场景，内容讲的是女人让男人给她们买一个类似的智能手机。 情节看上去很荒唐，却真实反映了当地流行的风尚。 手机厂商RIM在世界其他地方(其美国市场份额跌至1.6%)的市场可能日渐衰落，但在尼日利亚，黑莓手机依然很畅销。

　　尼日利亚的"黑莓手机热"反映出更广范围内的一大趋势：尽管智能手机在非洲的市场份额依旧很小，但它们在变得越来越炙手可热。 对于那些没能力购买计算机上网的人来说，使用智能手机就能解决这一问题，而每月所需花费不过几美元而已。 在尼日利亚触屏手机用户产生67%的在线搜索流量。 有400多万市民拥有智能手机，占全部移动用户的4%。

　　一个市场研究员，Informa的分析师Nicholas Jotischky说，由于RIM将客户群定位于年轻群体，所以有半数的用户使用黑莓手机。 用户特别喜欢黑莓手机的短信(BBM)功能，这可以让他们免费发送消息 (通过数据方式-如GPRS发送，不是SMS) “我用黑莓手机跟朋友聊天—包括男友， 拥有黑莓手机会让朋友对我刮目相看，”Diana Ogwuegbu是一名来自拉各斯的学生，她拥有众多BBM朋友。 一些精明的企业用BBM推广产品。

　　黑莓手机安全性很高，但RIM的市场份额就没那么乐观了。 尽管另一家深陷泥潭的手机厂商诺基亚在非洲依然具有超高的销售业绩， 更有可能抢占RIM的市场份额的反而是华为、中兴和德卡诺这样的中国公司： 这些厂商的手机和智能手机有两个SIM卡槽(这样用户能使用两个不同的网络，这对于一个信号不好的国家来说很实用)，而且价格更便宜。 随着尼日利亚的运营商引入苹果手机，RIM也在遭受同样的困境。

　　因此不论是尼日利亚，还是非洲，都无法拯救RIM。 所以RIM必须做出正确的决策，特别是明年1月要推出使用BlackBerry 10软件的新手机。 诺莱坞很快就会有新故事讲了：谁还用黑莓谁就会成为笑柄。

【双语阅读】智能手机在尼日利亚:黑莓女孩 中文翻译部分

　　Business Smartphones in Nigeria BlackBerry babes

　　Its devices are still popular there, but Africa won&apost save RIM

　　"DO YOU know how many times you have embarrassed me because you have rused to buy me a BlackBerry?" Keisha screams in a dusty car park, jabbing her boyfriend&aposs chest. Daniel says he can&apost afford it until next month. It is the final straw for Keisha.

　　This is a scene from "BlackBerry Babes", a Nigerian film about women wooing men into buying them such a smartphone. The plot may be absurd, but its sense of fashion is spot on. RIM, the maker of the device, may get clobbered elsewhere in the world (its market share in America has dropped to 1.6%), but in Nigeria BlackBerrys are still hot.

　　The country&aposs obsession with BlackBerrys is part of a wider trend: although the market share of smartphones is still small, they are becoming more popular all over Africa. They allow those unable to afford computers to browse the internet for a few dollars a month. Thumb-tapping phone users generate 67% of online searches in Nigeria. More than 4m of its citizens own a smartphone, about 4% of mobile subscribers.

　　If half of these use a BlackBerry, it is because RIM has managed to attract the younger set, says Nicholas Jotischky, an analyst at Informa, a market researcher. Users particularly fancy the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service, which allows them to send texts for nothing. "I have a BlackBerry to talk to friends—and boys. If you have a BlackBerry people see you in a certain light," says Diana Ogwuegbu, a student in Lagos, who has hundreds of BBM friends. Savvy businesses use BBM to market their products.

　　BlackBerrys are quite secure, but RIM&aposs market share is not. Although Nokia, another troubled phonemaker, still boasts high sales figures in Africa, it is Chinese firms such as Huawei, ZTE and Tecno which are more likely to erode RIM&aposs market share: they offer cheaper handsets and smartphones with two SIM cards (which allows customers to use two different networks—handy in a country where wireless service is unreliable). RIM may also suffer as Nigerian operators start to offer Apple&aposs iPhone.

　　So Nigeria, or Africa for that matter, is unlikely to save RIM. For that, other things have to go right, in particular the launch of devices that use the new BlackBerry 10 software in January. Nollywood may soon have to use another storyline: being spurned for still using a BlackBerry.

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