BlackBerry Stops Selling Phones in Japan: News Report

BlackBerry will apparently stop selling its once popular smartphones in Japan, according to multiple news reports.

That includes not selling its new Z10 smartphone in Japan or the new BlackBerry 10 there, MobilityTechzone reported.

The decision to get out of the Japanese market came in part because of the cost to change BlackBerry’s operating system to fit the Japanese language, according to the Nikkei business daily.

In addition, BlackBerry has lost market share in Japan to its rivals. Its share of the Japanese market dropped to just 0.3 percent. It had been as high as 5 percent, Reuters reported. The company has struggled with lower market share in other regions, as well. Phones run on the Android or iOS operating systems often have edged out the ones from BlackBerry.

At some point, BlackBerry may offer phones in China, and the company continues to do well in Indonesia and in some other locations in Asia, MobilityTechzone said.

BlackBerry will still provide support to current phone users in Japan.

Also, the company hopes the launch of the BlackBerry 10 will help return the company to profitability.

“We are in the process of launching BlackBerry 10 globally in key markets and we are seeing positive demand for the BlackBerry Z10 in countries where it has already launched. Japan is not a major market for BlackBerry and we have no plans to launch BlackBerry 10 devices there at this time,” BlackBerry spokeswoman Amy McDowell told All Things D.

The Canadian company, which makes the BlackBerry phones, was called Research in Motion (RIM), but changed its name with the launch of the BlackBerry 10, AFP said.