RIM may slash prices of BB handsets again, states report.

It had been reported a while ago that Canadian smartphone manufacturer, Research in Motion had slashed the prices of a few of their BlackBerry smartphones in India. The brand had dropped the prices of four of their hot selling handsets; one of which had a price drop of up to 26 percent. The handsets that got the price cut were the Curve 8520, Curve 9380, Curve 9360 and the Torch 9860. Those who did not jump on the BlackBerry bandwagon even after the reduction in prices, should wait for a little longer because it so appears that Research in Motion could lower the prices of their handsets even further.

As per an exclusive report by the Times of India, Sunil Dutt, MD of Research in Motion, India stated that further price cuts for their handsets could not be ruled out and he goes on to add, “The objective is to reach out to more consumers and therefore, make our devices affordable for both the consumer segment as well as for our enterprise customers.”

Last month, when Research in Motion dropped the prices of the handsets, Dutt had said that RIM as a brand had moved from being just an enterprise device to a more consumer device. He went on to add, “Be it our services or the product, we have seen a strong uptake by the youth and therefore, to get the devices into more hands, we are cutting the prices. The focus is not just on reducing prices, but we want to address a larger number of people and give them the overall experience of BlackBerry. We will continue to focus on bringing locally relevant products, services and applications to Indian consumers.”

It certainly would be beneficial for the brand to have more handsets in the sub Rs.10,000 range as at the moment, the company just has a single handset, the Curve 8520 in this price bracket. This is their hottest selling device and to have more handsets sold like the Curve 8520, RIM would need to price their handsets, accordingly, not just to strengthen its base in the competition, but also to achieve a wider consumer base. Samsung currently has six handsets, while other manufacturers like Micromax, Karbonn and Lava have a range of smartphones priced in the below Rs.10,000 range.