Six months after its launch in the United States and Canada, the Research In Motion unveiled its PlayBook tablet in Brazil. The company began rolling out the device across Latin America last month. “Brazil is very important to RIM; we have 37% of market share in Latin America, and we couldn’t have that without winning in Brazil,” said Peter Gould, general manager of RIM’s Brazil operations.
During the launch event in São Paulo, RIM executives highlighted the enterprise features and business applications on the device and its integration into enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management systems.
“The enterprise market aims to have on tablets the same experience [it has on] PCs. Besides, IT managers need to grantee security and RIM has all security certificates, which strengthen our enterprise strategy,” explained Renato Martins, manager for strategic accounts at RIM Brazil.
However, the battle won’t be easy as there are many others tablets on sale in Brazil, including Apple’s iPad, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and the Motorola Xoom. To gain Brazilians customers, RIM made arrangements to guarantee application support, including magazine publishers, Bradesco bank and cinema firm Cinemark.
Mobile carrier Claro will have the initial exclusivity on offering the Playbook, with other carriers announced shortly.
RIM did not state sales expectations or how much market share it expected to garner in the enterprise space. “The market is huge, because there are many users that don’t have Internet access, so we see a new category rising,” said Gould.
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