So you thought CrackBerries were only cool in the eyes of business people addicted to their email? Think again. South Africa’s youth has voted BlackBerry the coolest brand in the country in the Sunday Times Generation Next 2011 Brand Survey Awards. That means BlackBerry trumps Apple, in spite of the latter’s beautifully designed and supposedly cooler iParaphernalia. And the reason? BBM and ‘free’ internet for the kids, obviously.

The BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service and its super cheap internet packages were highlighted as reasons for BlackBerry’s popularity. It seems the days of instant messaging your Grade 8 buddies in the next door classroom on MXit may be a thing of the past. You need a BlackBerry now. Your Dad’s old Nokia is not going to cut it. And surprisingly, at least for the young South African market, an iPhone or Android may not do the trick either. They want BBM, says HDI Youth Marketers MD Jason Levin.

“BBM is the archetypal ‘killer app’ – it’s one of the best examples ever of intrinsic functionality driving demand for a cellphone, or any device for that matter.”

In 2010, BlackBerry’s BBM services experienced a 500% increase in usage and reportedly now has over 43 million users worldwide.

“BBM turned the BlackBerry, a smartphone also used for business purposes, into a cool tool for youth,” adds Levin.

Well done, I think.

[Source: ITWeb]