BlackBerry plans to regain position in Australian market with PRIV on Optus

BlackBerry, once a dominant handset vendor in Australia, has its eyes set on regaining its position in the Australian market with the launch of PRIV through Optus.

The company had seen a decline in market share in Australia, as both big organisations as well as local telecom companies drifted away from the platform. The dwindling sales were reflected across the globe.

According to a report by The Australian, BlackBerry enjoyed a 19.9 percent share of the global smartphone market in Q4 2009, which dropped to 2.9 percent by Q1 2013.

An IDC report on global smartphone OS market share reveals that the BlackBerry OS continued to decline from the second quarter of 2012 to Q2 2015. The shipments fell from 4.9 percent in 2012 to just 0.3 percent in Q2, 2015.

The Canadian firm embraced the Android OS and launched BlackBerry PRIV in November 2015. Through Optus, the first Blackberry Android phone landed in Australia on Feb.3.

PRIV still runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, but the company is expected to roll out the Android 6.0 Marshmallow in the first quarter of 2016, as reported by Tampa Bay Review.

Since its launch, Optus has doubled its projected sales of PRIV in Australia, clarified Matthew Ball, managing director, BlackBerry Australia.

BlackBerry has also been on an "acquisition spree" over the last 18 months, with the company acquiring Secusmart and Movirtu in 2014; WatchDox, a file security firm; AtHoc, a leading provider of secure and networked crisis communication and Good Technology in 2015.

These acquisitions fall in the line with the firm's agenda of upgrading its security features and integrating all the services from the acquired companies. Meanwhile, the company also made an effort to upgrade its BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

On Optus, the BlackBerry PRIV price starts from AU$67 per month which includes unlimited calls, text messages and 500MB + 1GB bonus data.

In January 2016, BlackBerry PRIV was released in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, India and France. In the U.K., Vodafone exclusively sells the smartphone with a sliding keyboard.

In the US, BlackBerry is now available on AT&T, TELUS, Rogers, Bell and recently on T-Mobile. From March onwards, Verizon is also scheduled to sell BlackBerry PRIV.