Is there an advantage to purchasing an Android smartphone over that of a BlackBerry handset? Sure, there are a few: you get more choices, in some cases better hardware, larger displays with higher resolutions, more apps, and so etc. Those are valid reasons and those are actually some of the reasons why Nigerians at one point gave up on BlackBerry for Android.
However it seems that perhaps the novelty of larger displays has worn off because according to a recent report from the Nigerian Tribune (via CrackBerry), it seems that Nigerians are starting to move back to BlackBerry handsets. Why is that? Well apparently it is because data plans for BlackBerry handsets are cheaper than compared to regular data plans.
For example it costs N1,000 for subscriptions for BlackBerry internet and this usually lasts users for a month. However compared to Android data plans, N1,000 apparently barely lasts users for a week, let alone a month. In extreme cases some users even end up blowing through all their data in a single day on Android data plans.
Considering that the report also suggests that many Nigerians use BBM accounts to create ads and publicity, it makes more sense for them to go with a data plan that allows them to do that, as opposed to one that finishes faster. While this is hardly a major victory for BlackBerry, it does show that despite the company typically being viewed in a doom and gloom light, there are still markets in which they still have many loyal customers.
Filed in . Read more about Android and BlackBerry.