Blackberry gets a raspberry from China Unicom

Stan Beer
Sunday, 16 April 2006 09:07

IT Industry - Strategy

The news that the BlackBerry handheld mobile device manufacturer, Research in Motion (RIM), is about to be flummoxed on the eve of its launch into China should come as no surprise. The Chinese are masters at the let’s copy and do it cheaper game.
What must rankle Canadian-based RIM, however, is that the launch of a similar mobile email service called Redberry is not only a blatant brand rip-off but it has been perpetrated by a Chinese Government owned entity in China Unicom. In addition, with the full Chinese market at its disposal and the freedom to subsidise its service to the hilt, the Chinese Government/China Unicom has effectively sabotaged the BlackBerry pricing structure.

The BlackBerry experience should serve as an object lesson for all technology companies looking to do business in China. Forget about trying to sell software there – it will be copied and pirated. The same thing goes for commodity hardware. The same thing goes for commodity technology services. The same thing goes for the capitalistic concept of branding. What’s more, despite all their posturing to the contrary, the piracy, copying and brand theft will be done while the Chinese Government looks the other way and even aided and abetted by the Chinese Government.

For its part, China wants to modernise its economy and bring technology to its masses at affordable prices. We can hardly blame them for that. However, if China is to be a part of the global technology market and part of the World Trade Organisation, it needs to be made to play by the rules. But we don’t see that happening. If the Chinese Government wants its nation to enter the global technology marketplace, it should be helping to enforce protection of the intellectual property and brands of companies entering its market. Instead, we see the exact opposite taking place.

The only things that the Chinese cannot copy are innovation and expertise. For the present, at least, not much in the way of new technology comes out of China. The Chinese also still need the expertise of Western companies to implement large scale complicated technology projects. Perhaps Western technology companies should bear these things in mind before they launch headlong into the massive, unregulated Chinese market with dollar signs in their eyes.