Thousands Queue for Blackberry look-a-like

Move over, BlackBerry. Last week, it was all about Nexian fever
in Jakarta.

At least 4,000 people at the Grand Indonesia shopping mall had
caught it by Friday. Some lined up for as long as seven hours,
arriving well before the mall had opened, to get their hands on
the made-in-China smartphone.

Rahma, a housewife, was among them. She admitted to picking up
her daughter early from school so she could be one of the first
buyers of the new NX-G522, billed as the BlackBerry for those on
a tighter budget.
“I’m only after the ‘smartphone’ feeling you get when owning a
phone that resembles a BlackBerry,” Rahma said.
The Nexian’s price tag surely made some customers feel pretty
clever. The device offers some standard smartphone capabilities,
like Internet access, including Facebook, and a 1 gigabyte
memory card for the price of just less than Rp 600,000 ($63),
about a third of the price of the cheapest BlackBerry model.
Martono Kusuma, president director of PT Metrotech Jaya
Komunika, which distributes the Nexian phones, said demand is
high for a cheaper but “just-as-reliable” BlackBerry-esque phone.
“I don’t want to mention numbers that I’m not certain of, but
there are many more Nexian users in Indonesia compared to
BlackBerry users,” Martono said. “Indonesians look for a cheaper
version of everything and we’d like to accommodate that.”
The country’s second-largest telecom firm, PT Indosat, said it
has 300,000 Nexian subscribers, compared to 200,000 BlackBerry
subscribers. Martono said Nexian has an edge over the BlackBerry
in areas other than price. “Our brand has its very own service
center, unlike BlackBerry phones, for which operators have to
provide service for the phones,” he said.
Teguh Prasetya, general manager of brand marketing for Indosat,
said the smartphone phenomenon was now within reach of all
Indonesians.
“With the [Nexian] Chinese-made smartphones, Indonesians from
the lower- to middle-class economic sector can enjoy Internet
and Facebook features, though not as advanced, because
BlackBerry has its very own integrated messenger service,” he
said.
Teguh said he welcomed the BlackBerry “copycats” because it
showed that BlackBerry has become the standard by which other
brands are measured against.
“Many people I know buy Nexian phones not for Internet service
or the other features, but simply because they resemble the look
of BlackBerry phones,” he said.
Jon, a maintenance worker, said his sleek new Nexian was
certainly worth the six-hour wait. “It’s brand new, and there’s
a certain feeling you get when one has something that not a lot
of people have,” he said.
“The quality might not be as good and maybe it’ll only last a
year, but it’s worth paying that much for a year’s access to
Facebook and [Yahoo and Windows] messenger services,” he added.
There’s a devil’s advocate in every crowd, though, and Friday’s
was no exception.
Maswidyantoro, who stood watching the long line at Grand
Indonesia, said those lined up were courting disappointment.
“Many buy Nexian phones due to their physical likeness to
BlackBerry phones,” he said.
“But once they realize that the features don’t live up to
BlackBerry standards, this will result in a boomerang effect for
Nexian. Its success will not be a long-term one, because
customers will not buy it again.
“Especially for people who have used BlackBerrys and know the
differences between the two phones. Most Nexian buyers have
never previously used other smartphones before. This is the risk
of being the imitator.”