BlackBerry introduces Z3 and Q20 Phones along with the new BES12
The Canadian Company BlackBerry has revealed two new models at the MWC2014, BlackBerry Z3 and BlackBerry Q20. The BlackBerry Z3 has been produced by the Foxconn which had recently signed a five-year contract to manufacturer will develop, produce, and handle inventory of new BlackBerry models while BlackBerry for its part shall be supplying the base software, this is the first of the models to be launched from their side pertaining to the contract.
The BlackBerry Z3 aka codenamed BlackBerry Jakarta, is a full touch phone with 5 inch screen, 3G connectivity and comes with BlackBerry 10.2.1 pre-installed, the Z3 is scheduled to be introduced first in Indonesia around mid April. The Z3 is priced at $200 and if the price sticks, it shall be the cheapest BlackBerry 10 phone for now. BlackBerry CEO, John Chen mentioned in the introductory talk that BlackBerry has “a plan to take the Phone out globally with LTE sometime in the future”.
The next phone that has been introduced was the BlackBerry Q20 has a 3.5 inch display and sports a physical QWERTY keyboard and shall be one of the biggest screens with a physical QWERTY, a trackpad and function keys. No price or other specifications have been given out yet but is expected to reach the markets around 2014 year end.
During the event BlackBerry has also launched its new Mobile Management System BES 12. Previously BES versions were only able to manage only the BlackBerry models/ devices but contradictorily BES 12 has the capability to work with not just the current BlackBerry 10 models but can also interact with Android, iOS and Windows phones.
With BlackBerry showing a huge $4.4 billion quarterly loss last year and having a major write down of BlackBerry 10 devices, seems that with the contract with FoxConn and other initiatives BlackBerry is striving to forge into other trends and markets to regain its popularity and improve its market share.
