Blackberry 2007 Annual Report Download - page 13

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11
BlackBerry for the Individual Buyer
During the past year, we also began a substantial effort to
extend the reach of BlackBerry smartphones beyond the
enterprise market. These efforts have included channel
expansion, encouragement of lower carrier service pricing
programs, introduction of consumer-friendly applications and
the launch of new hardware platforms. The BlackBerry Pearl
smartphone attracted many new users to the BlackBerry
platform and received wide recognition for its unique blend
of size, functionality and style. The BlackBerry Pearl, which is
available in three colors, offers a camera, media player and
all the renowned BlackBerry smartphone functionality in an
amazingly small and stylish design. This outstanding product
launch exceeded our expectations and helped broaden our
customer base. At the end of fiscal 2007, over 27% of the
BlackBerry subscriber account base was non-enterprise users.
As we progress in fiscal 2008, we are continuing to expand
the appeal of BlackBerry smartphones to broader market
segments with new products, features and services such as
the addition of the Roxio®Media Manager for BlackBerry®,
the launch of enhanced BlackBerry®Internet Service features
and the launch of the new BlackBerry Curve smartphone,
which is already receiving rave reviews.
Sales, Marketing and Channel Development
BlackBerry brand awareness continued to grow around the
world during fiscal 2007. RIM and its partners invested in a
broad array of marketing initiatives to help expand the
strength of the BlackBerrybrand beyond the enterprise
market. A record number of product launches were
executed with carrier partners and RIM significantly
expanded its indirect and thirdparty distribution channels.
At the end of the year, the BlackBerry solution was available
through over 100,000 retail points of presence and growing.
Additional efforts areunderway to develop relationships with
large national resellers and on-line distributors and RIM will
continue to invest in training and supporting the traditional
carrier enterprise and retail channels.
Network Operations
As the BlackBerry subscriber account base grows, we remain
focused on delivering a high level of reliability and service
quality to our customers. We have been investing in the
expansion of our infrastructure as well as our continuity of
operations capabilities. The BlackBerry®Infrastructure
processes over a billion wireless data packets each day and
we are dedicated to continuing to provide the security,
quality of service and scalability that customers have come to
expect from BlackBerry.
BlackBerry Application Ecosystem
Another important aspect of the BlackBerry platform is the
support and added value it receives from the large number
of independent software vendors (ISVs) and other partners
that make up the BlackBerry application ecosystem. These
partners develop and enable a wide variety of enterprise and
personal applications to work with BlackBerry smartphones.
There are currently more than 600 BlackBerry®Alliance
Members offering BlackBerry applications for both
enterprises and individuals. In addition to
ongoing innovation in virtually every mobile
application segment, it is particularly
exciting to see partners taking advantage of
GPS and multimedia capabilities to add
new dimensions and value to the user
experience.
RIM continues to provide an open,
standards-based development platform and
supports developers with robust tools and
technical assistance. In support of this goal,
the BlackBerry®Java®Developer Environment (BlackBerry
JDE) was recently launched. The BlackBerryJDE provides
developers access to almost everyfunctional component and
application on a BlackBerry smartphone, including the
camera, BlackBerry®Messenger and GPS APIs, supportfor
numerous audio formats for routing playback, and XML and
Web Services for use in application development. The
BlackBerryJDE has already been downloaded by morethan
125,000 registered developers and the growing BlackBerry
development community is expected to significantly expand
the number of applications available for the BlackBerry
platform.
R&D and Manufacturing
RIM’s focus on high quality engineering and performance
remains a key competitive advantage. While the number of
new products increased dramatically since last year, including
the launch of the BlackBerry 7130e, BlackBerry 7130c,
Over 6 million smartphones wereshipped by RIM during the year.