RIM prepares for sales attack in 160 Indian cities

Plans to double BlackBerry reach with thousands of stores.

Ailing RIM's recent moves to boost its underwhelming BlackBerry performance included axing its co-CEOs in favour of newbie Thorsten Heins, and launching a new Runtime for Android Apps platform.

Now, India's Economic Times says RIM plans to boost its profile in the country by doubling its reach to hit 160 cities.

It currently has BlackBerrys available in around 4,000 stores, which means it will need to rollout into thousands more retailers to achieve its desired goal.

Asia is an emerging market and over 15 million smartphones were sold in November alone, however that accounted for just six million of all mobile phones.

That's good and bad news for RIM. Good because it means the firm has an abundance of opportunity to reach newcomers, but additionally it means there is an incredible amount of groundwork to do to entice the 94 per cent of feature phone users.