The iPhone is by no means a winner in Indonesia, a nation where RIM is king and Blackberry ownership is assumed. People in the workplace are expected to own a Blackberry and hearing someone ask for your BlackBerry PIN is a common occurrence.
Yes, it's apparently hip to own a BlackBerry and even grade schoolers have them. Some nannies are also BlackBerry equipped. They're mostly affordable and Indonesian network providers race to offer the cheapest BlackBerry plan possible. If I recall correctly, Indonesia is also the first country to offer a buffet of BlackBerry services from daily, to weekly, and monthly options.
The killer feature? Messenger. The unlimited data plan that comes with BlackBerrys allows its users to send unlimited messages to their fellow compatriots via BlackBerry Messenger as easy as posting a Facebook status. Speaking of Facebook, it's also a killer app which misled many uninformed people to think Facebook was a BlackBerry creation (I'm not kidding).
Local BlackBerry developers I spoke with say they would be more motivated to develop iPhone apps because writing them is apparently a lot less complicated than writing BlackBerry apps. However, there are so few iPhones in Indonesia (less than 50 thousand in a country of 230 million people) that it makes little business sense for them.
This brings me to my point: A device needs to have a killer app or a killer feature to be successful. it needs to have something that makes people think they need to have the device because it's not available on other devices.
For example, Apple II was a massive hit for Apple because it has a spreadsheet application called VisiCalc. Back in the late 1970's having this was so crucial that businesses flocked to Apple instead of PCs because there wasn't anything like that on the PC market until much later when Lotus came up with 123.
BlackBerrys are so popular thanks to BlackBerry Messenger. People have a need to communicate and the more they can communicate to more people for the least amount of cost the better.
iPhones are popular almost everywhere else in the world because they're sold at affordable prices. Those who buy iPhones laud its flexibility in being whatever they want it to be thanks to the more than one hundred thousand apps available in the App Store. There is nothing like it in the world. App Stores for other smartphones are nowhere near as large because they're playing catch up with Apple.
It's clear that BlackBerry's strength in the eyes of Indonesians is the affordable data plans which allow for all-you-can-eat data under $20 per month. This provides a platform for BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, Twitter, and all the emails one could consume, to rule the roost.
The Android hasn't been that popular since it was launched in August by Telkomsel because of various reasons including HTC's trademark battle with a local company which forced them to pull out of the country for several months. Latest word from an insider is that HTC won their case and should be back selling smartphones in the country within several weeks.
In Indonesia the iPhone is expensive. Sold exclusively by Telkomsel with no contract for $700 and $800 (after multiple price drops from $1000 and $1200 at launch), 500 MB data plan which tend to leak for no apparent reason, pitiful voice call, sms and tethering package, along with practically zero marketing effort offer very little reason for people to buy them.
What Telkomsel needs to do is come up with a very strong and practical reason for people to buy iPhones. A phone, no matter how advanced or fantastic will not sell itself especially not when there is no support from the network provider. The strong point of an iPhone is that it's the most flexible mobile computing device on the planet since 2007.
Telkomsel needs to recognize that fact and build on it by getting local iPhone developers to build a killer app, preferably with a strong local flavor.
The hottest thing right now is social networking. Facebook has its own app. Twitter is universal. Koprol, location-based social networking service based in Jakarta is growing very fast especially after they were featured on television over the weekend.
Telkomsel woud do well to talk to Koprol to create an iPhone app. Those guys don't really need an iPhone app but Telkomsel desperately needs to sell those iPhones. They're probably ranked last or very near last on Apple's list of iPhone partners with regards to sales numbers.
Telkomsel could also get shopping malls all over the country to link up with several developers to create their own iPhone apps. Constantly updated mall guides on iPhones that can tell people about the stores, their promotions, and especially locations of available parking spaces in their respective parking lots would be something that not only is useful for iPhone owners but serves as an advertising/promotional platform for the malls and their tenants.
Create a killer app that people feel they would have to have. Make it something that works much better on the iPhone than on any other device.
What we have in Indoneisa is a case of the chicken and the egg. Developers may feel that the iPhone isn't worth working on because it may not be financially viable for them since there's so few users. However, to get more users, they need apps. Not just any app but apps that are relevant for them. Practical apps. Also, they need to know how and where to get them.
Believe it or not, many Indonesian iPhone users are unaware that there are more than a hundred thousand apps for them to select from. Many of them also don't know that they can install apps in their phones. It's Telkomsel's job to get everyone to know that and to know how to do it. A handful of one-shot low-engagement public events aren't going to do that. They need to show what an iPhone can do.
