After BlackBerry's high-profile Priv smartphone largely failed to make a significant dent among high-end consumers, the Canadian firm has changed tack completely with the launch of the new Dtek 50.
Instead of competing with the iPhones of this world, BlackBerry's latest, retailing for just Dh1,199, hopes to find favour in the furiously competitive mid-priced handset segment against rivals like the Samsung Galaxy J7 and the Honor 5X.
But while such handsets are favourites among consumers, BlackBerry’s latest is designed more for enterprise purchasers. The company claims the Dtek 50 is the world’s most secure Android handset, in a move to appeal to security-conscious IT departments rather than consumers looking for the best screen or camera.
The Dtek 50’s storage is encrypted right out of the box, while its Dtek app notifies you when the handset camera, microphone and location are being accessed. And since the Priv’s launch last December, BlackBerry has been active in providing Android security patches, now available for the Dtek 50.
However, BlackBerry’s “most-secure Android” claim should be taken with a pinch of salt; many of its security features are becoming increasingly standard within the Android operating system itself, while Samsung claims that its Knox mobile enterprise security system is more secure.
The Dtek 50’s reasonable price (especially compared with the Priv), combined with BlackBerry’s security pedigree, may mean that the Dtek 50 will find favour with IT departments.
Beyond such security features, there’s little to recommend the Dtek 50 for the individual consumer looking for an affordable handset. To cut costs, BlackBerry has eschewed an original design, largely replicating the (albeit quite attractive) form factor and features of Alcatel’s Idol 4.
It’s not a bad package, but BlackBerry could have won over consumers by raising the price a little and offering better features.
A little unusually for a device that values security, there’s no fingerprint reader. And while most of the world has now moved on, there are some BlackBerry aficionados who will miss a physical keyboard.
q&a handset era soon to end
John Everington reveals what else BlackBerry’s Dtek 50 has to offer:
Enough about security. How is the Dtek 50 for taking pictures?
Not bad, but not great, as you’d expect around this price point. Like the Idol 4, you get a 13MP camera that does perfectly well in normal conditions but struggles a little in low light settings.
And for watching movies?
The 5.2-inch IPS screen does the job OK, the action scenes of the Suicide Squad playing perfectly adequately, while not offering the wow factor of the Amoled displays of the (slightly more expensive) Idol 4S and OnePlus 3.
So is that it for BlackBerry’s physical keyboards?
Not necessarily. Chief executive John Chen told The National earlier this year that it was working on a new device with a physical keyboard, so watch this space. If you can’t wait that long, the Priv is still available, but you’ll have to pay around Dh2,600 for the privilege.
The Dtek 50 still has BBM and BlackBerry Hub, right?
They do. But these once unique features are also now available across all iOS and Android devices as well.
If that’s the case, who’s buying BlackBerrys these days?
Fewer and fewer people. The company shipped just 400,000 handsets worldwide during the second quarter, a drop of nearly two-thirds compared with last year, according to Gartner. Perhaps the Dtek 50’s low price point will see shipments pick up a bit, but you can’t help the feeling that BlackBerry’s handset days are looking numbered.
jeverington@thenational.ae
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What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
