In July, Blackberry’s sub-Saharan Africa Chief Charles Asinugo affirmed to me that the struggling company looked to Africa to save it; with the new Blackberry Passport Africa may decline to do so, and it would not be the continent’s fault.

After several months of impressively teasing the public and the media, BlackBerry on Wednesday finally launched its Passport Smartphone, the flagship device with which it aims to sail back to the high waters of the Smartphone market now largely dominated by Samsung, Apple, and Tecno if you add its impressive showing in Africa’s largest market Nigeria.

Although it has received global plaudits for the audacity of its design and features, the Passport has within it some factors that may inhibit its performance in the African Market. Some in the phone, others outside it, but all connected to it; here are five reasons the new Blackberry Passport may not sell in Africa.

Eyes on The Price:

 BlackBerry chief executive John Chen first revealed the square phone (pictured) during the Canadian company's annual general meeting in June
BlackBerry chief executive John Chen first revealed the square phone (pictured) during the Canadian company’s annual general meeting in June

Throughout the protracted teasing by Blackberry and media hive of the Passport, I was an ardent follower of the developments regarding the phone, scouring all online articles with the mention of it and anxious for its release. But my affection and desire for the phone began to waver after rumours emerged that the device could cost up to $700.

And as Blackberry would have it, the phone came out $100 short ($600) but still in the same range of the sum that turns me and most Africans off.

Though Africa has a significant minority that could, and do, spend such sum on a Smartphone, the majority of those who make up the continent’s fast widening Smartphone consumer base would not, at least not for Blackberry.

Africa’s booming Smartphone market is built on the back of affordable but efficient devices. The continent’s consumers –dominated by the middle class– well aware of their financial limitations are very price conscious, a factor Smartphone makers like Tecno have taken advantage of to become major players in Africa. This trend has seen the prices of previous Blackberry devices plummet and the company forced to make rival devices that are as less expensive like the Blackberry z3 launched in July that goes for about $230.

Here is the Berry problem; while phone giants Samsung and Apple can withstand relatively low sales in Africa of their high-end flagship Smartphones thanks to their huge consumer base in Asia, the US and Europe; Blackberry, robbed of those markets by its two giant competitors, no longer has a strong market to lean on thus its need for Africa.

But most Africans do not do expensive nay luxurious, especially not on the head of a not-trending Blackberry brand, this means they will most likely shun the Blackberry Passport, or better still only do so if the price comes crashing down as others before it has.

A Case of Missed Target?

The Passport (right) was unveiled alongside Blackberry's touchscreen phone the Z3 (left), and the Classic (centre) in a slide, earlier this year.
The Passport (right) was unveiled alongside Blackberry’s touchscreen phone the Z3 (left), and the Classic (centre) in a slide, earlier this year.

Blackberry says the Passport is focused squarely on what it is calling the “power professional”- Bank staff, those in the corporate world, industries, healthcare and government officials. These segments of the population once made up the diehard fans of the early Blackberry devices, and the company says it wants to get them back with the Passport.

To do that, it has added more excellent work-friendly mobile apps and features like the BlackBerry Balance with which you can encrypt business calls and data, and store them away from your personal content. The Passport still has a superior draft email support, attachment editing and formatting to Apple’s iOS and Android email apps, leading techsperts (tech-experts) to retain the “best mobile email client” title with Blackberry.

That said, Blackberry fails to note that its “power-professionals” in Africa and around the world have moved on. “It’s not 2005 anymore”, one techspert wrote, “The Blackberry Passport is living in the past!”

Those on whose doors Blackberry is knocking with the Passport are already in bed with Apple and Samsung, and with all due respect to the attractive Blackberry device, they already are having a good time of which they may not believe that Blackberry can better.

The Passport has been called a long-lasting, email-centric “work” phone for the “All Work No Play” Business guys; the problem is that they have all converted to “Work and Play” Business guys, thanks to the missionary work of Samsung and Apple.

The initial Blackberry 10 phones were criticised for being aimed misguidedly at every day consumers. The new Passport, it’s feared, may have just been aimed at a bloc that no longer exists, not globally, and most especially not in Africa.

The Design

The number keys on the BlackBerry Passport appear on the screen
The number keys on the BlackBerry Passport appear on the screen

Past the sum and the class segmentation, the design of the Blackberry Passport may also put off much of the African consumer base. The square shape and gargantuan size of the Passport (3.6 inches wide) is no doubt audacious and impressively different, and I confess it’s what I like most about the phone. But for most African Smartphone lovers already preferable of slim sleek sexy rectangular cum curvy devices, the Passport may just become a case of a square peg in a rectangular hole.

A tech-savvy friend said to me about the Passport: I don’t need such a fat phone, I already have a Tablet to worry about. The Passport’s bigness also puts it in direct conflict with all carriages, from the human palm to the man’s pocket and down to the lady’s purse. The problem doubles when you take into account that most Africans, like others around the world, often have two or more phones; and you would be more comfortable carrying a Galaxy S4 and an Iphone5 than a Blackberry Passport with a Nokia torch, as tiny as the latter is.

Another point of complication is the keyboard; just when you thought you have gotten your grips over the basics of using all Smartphone keyboards, the Blackberry Passport makes you a learner again and in such a mundane thing as typing.

A techspert, Joana Stern wrote of the Passport in the Wall Street Journal “In my heyday, with my trusty Curve, I could type 60 words per minute without even looking down. Unfortunately, the only curve here is the learning curve. I can only type an average of 45 words per minute on the Passport—and that’s after three weeks of practice”.

This is not to say that the Passport’s keyboard is not cool, it is multi-cool and worth its description as “the star of the Passport”.

Another techspert Molly Wood, who had the privilege of testing out the Passport, said of it in the New York Times; “It gets some new tricks that pair with the device’s big, 4.5-inch LCD screen. The physical keys are limited to letters, backspace, return and the space bar. All other keys appear as a virtual keyboard on the screen. When you’re typing, suggested words appear above those virtual keys.

The physical keyboard is touch-sensitive; you can flick up on the keyboard to select an autocomplete word, for example. You can also scroll up and down on the keyboard, which evokes that beloved BlackBerry trackpad and keeps the screen pleasingly smudge-free”.

But after the praises, he added; “But using the actual keyboard isn’t as easy as I remember. The keys are stiff and take some work to press. Even after several weeks of use, I felt slow. I typed more like a hunt-and-peck newbie than the “power professional” BlackBerry says are its primary targets”.

Blackberry has gone for a classy and unique with the Passport, but it risks ending up as complicated and difficult, Africans don’t like complicated.

The Familiar Problem of Applications

Despite two app stores, Instagram isn't available for the Passport
Despite two app stores, Instagram isn’t available for the Passport

First, it has to be said that Blackberry has learnt its application lesson to an extent. The previous upgraded BlackBerry 10 operating system behaves similarly like the popular Android and can run many Android apps. The BB 10.3 OS on which the Passport will run even offers more; to download apps, you use the BlackBerry World app store or the Amazon App Store, which is preloaded.

But that’s the extent it gets to, not all Android apps are available: neither App Stores has the popular Instagram, nor can you get the suite of Google apps available from the Google Play store, for example, like the official Google Maps app or Google Now.

The African Tech Market, like others around the world, are in love with Apps, which Android has in abundance. Africans also love it free, which Android has aplenty, unlike Blackberry’s stores, at least not up to the level of Android.

There are also some good BlackBerry-only amenities, the Blend software will let you get access to text messages, calls, documents and BBM messages on your desktop computer or even a tablet. The BlackBerry Assistant is also cool, it does a good job of learning behavioural habits, so that when you tap the share button on a photo, for example, it suggests the person you’re most likely to send it to.

But techsperts have criticised its app performance, saying the “app responsiveness is a bit slow. Now, Africans already have the ubiquity of the Android OS and its apps and the uniqueness of the Apple iOS; despite the different, daring and promising attributes of its apps and OS, the Blackberry Passport may still struggle to create a good space between both.

The Phone is Not Built For Africa

The Blackberry Passport is the same size and shape as a U.S. passport
The Blackberry Passport is the same size and shape as a U.S. passport

Finally, the shape of the phone says it all; the Blackberry Passport shaped like the American Passport was built for the West’s high-end market exampled by the fact that the phone had to be made by a company in Mexico solely to meet American and Canadian security requirements.

Blackberry described its Passport as “the international symbol of mobility”, but as evidenced by where it was launched-London, Dubai and Toronto- it’s clear that the phone’s flight schedule is restricted.

Blackberry could insist on its phone’s premium price, preventing it from cascading like the earlier BB10 phones. This is because Passport’s two most obviously unique pieces of hardware, the square screen and the touch sensitive keyboard, are highly expensive in comparison with other Smartphones. Makers of Android phones also get much of their software free, significantly reducing their costs, while Blackberry has to make its BB10. Insisting on its premium price means Blackberry is not looking to Africa with the Passport.

The company does not deny this however, Blackberry says it plans low-cost phones, like the z3, for developing nations many of them in Africa. Thus enters the Blackberry Classic, which is expected to be launched towards the end of the year. The BlackBerry Classic, expected to price between around $300, will feature the traditional keyboard, trackpad and physical navigation keys of earlier BlackBerrys.

Thus, Blackberry may not be looking to Africa to save its phone business with the Passport after all, their hopes must be on the Blackberry classic.

Smartphones make more money for companies through large-scale manufacturing, which is what the Passport is not poised to do. IDC, a research company, estimates that Apple shipped 32.5 million iPhones during the second quarter of this year while BlackBerry moved only 1.5 million handsets.

With the Blackberry Passport that trend may not change, but the Blackberry Classic could help.

A techspert said of consumers in  Africa that may rebuff the Blackberry Passport because of the factors that I have highlighted; “To them I say, you’ll love the BlackBerry Classic”. But we won’t take his word for it, we’ll wait for the Classic.

Elsewhere on Ventures

Triangle arrow