This article is more than 1 year old

Apple goes after BlackBerry's last stronghold

Cupertinian outpost established in Indonesia

Apple has opened an office in Indonesia.

Twitter member Fauzan Alfi, aka @fauzanalfi, spotted a new listing for Apple on the American Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia’s site. The address provided on that site matches that on Apple's own site.

Apple has also started hiring staff in Indonesia, some in retail roles.

Why does Apple – and why should you - care about Indonesia?

That the nation is the world's fourth most-populous and is on track to become one of the world's ten largest economies makes it worthy of everyone's attention. A growing middle class can probably afford Apple kit more than ever before.

Indonesia is also one of BlackBerry's last strongholds, so much so that last month it released an Indonesia-only BlackBerry Z3 Jakarta Edition. There's not much difference between the Jakarta and the Z3 offered to the rest of the world, but BlackBerry has made an investment in support for (local language) bahasa Indonesia, and also in local content and services.

Apple coming to town threatens that investment because Indonesia's emerging middle class will, like most folks around the world, be aware of BlackBerry's decline. Apple kit priced to meet local budgets and with local support – and language – could therefore make one of BlackBerry's last remaining strong markets just that bit tougher. ®

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