This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

Blackberry Set To Launch Two Mid-Range Android Phones This Year

Forgotten Blackberry Wants To Make A Comeback With 2 New Android Phones
|
Open Image Modal
Mark Blinch / Reuters
Blackberry CEO John Chen arrives to their annual general meeting for shareholders in Waterloo, Canada June 23, 2015. BlackBerry Ltd said on Tuesday its turnaround gained traction as sales at its crucial software segment rose in the first quarter and its broader revenue slide began to ease, sending its shares up 4.3 percent. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Blackberry will launch two mid-range Android phones this year in the range of $300-$400. The company's CEO John Chen has stated in his recent interviews that they need to modify their device strategy to make the company more profitable.

Last year Blackberry ventured into the Android smartphone market with the high-end Blackberry Priv. Despite being lauded in many departments by experts, the phone did not do well especially because of the high price-point of ₹62,999. The phone brought back the classic Blackberry keyboard and slider form and lot of people liked the concept as well.

"We released our Android device just about when the high-end phone market went soft, so that was principally the reason behind the lukewarm response. However, the execution could have been better because I tried to sell these phones through carriers as retail shops," Chen told ET in an interview.

Open Image Modal

The CEO said they are looking at the affordable markets with two phones this year in $300-$400 range. One of the phones will follow the Blackberry Priv's design language with the slider keyboard format and the other phone will be a full touchscreen phone.

"India is a very important market for us. We lost a lot of ground in India. We want India to be back among the top 10 markets for us. We are also working with government agencies to provide security services," expressed Chan in a talk with the Hindu.

It also seems that Blackberry is not yet giving up on BB10. Even after losing a significant amount of market share they are preparing to launch the next version of their own OS. The lack of applications on the platform has been a real deal-breaker for the Blackberry OS.

The company will have a very tough task ahead. While Samsung is spreading its market with quality phones in each segment, Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OnePlus, Vivo, and Honor are ruling the mid-range market with multiple offerings. Blackberry has to come up with something very solid in terms of both hardware and software to beat them.

Open Image Modal
Open Image Modal
Open Image Modal

Contact HuffPost India

Evolution Of BlackBerry
RIM Inter@ctive Pager 950 (1998)(01 of14)
Open Image Modal
The RIM Inter@ctive Pager 950 was one of the first true BlackBerry devices. Released in 1998 it looks more like a large pager - because that's exactly what it was. But it could also handle messages up to 16,000 characters, and came with an Intel 386 processor - which was pretty good at the time. Oh, and it ran for almost a month on a single AA battery. Take that, iPhone. It cost $350 at launch.
RIM 957 Wireless Handheld (2000)(02 of14)
Open Image Modal
The RIM 957 Wireless Handheld was introduced in April 2000, and was described as a "breakthrough palm sized wireless handheld". It gave users access to the Internet, email, pager and organiser functions, with a 32 bit Intel 386 processor and 5MB of flash memory. It was the first device to offer 'always on" performance, and sold for about $500.
BlackBerry 5810 (2002)(03 of14)
Open Image Modal
The first true 'BlackBerry' was the 5810 - and it was also the first to include Voice Calls. That's right - the earlier devices weren't even phones, making this the first truly integrated phone-organiser-email-thingy. It was expensive - $749 - but could do just about most of the same things a basic smartphone can do today.
Blackberry 7230(04 of14)
Open Image Modal
One of the most famous - even iconic - BlackBerry devices ever was the classic blue Blackberry 7230, which came with a 65k colour screen instead of the old monochrome versi0on, as well as 16MB of storage and a battery with up to 240 hours of stand-by. It sold for about $400 at the time, and featured a full QWERTY keyboard.
'SureType' BlackBerry(05 of14)
Open Image Modal
The BlackBerry 7100 series featured the company's first models without a full keyboard, instead opting for the T9 'SureType' system familiar from other mobiles. The phones were popular with the mass-market as they looked and were sized similar to normal phones,. They were marketed to consumers for about $200.
BlackBerry 8700 (2005)(06 of14)
Open Image Modal
The BlackBerry 8700 was the first of its handhelds to use high-speed internet via EDGE. It offered much faster browsing and came with a QVGA 320 by 240-pixels screen, as well as Bluetooth support and 64mb of Flash memory.
BlackBerry Pearl (2006)(07 of14)
Open Image Modal
The Pearl was at the time the smallest BlackBerry ever released. It weighed just over 3 pounds and cost just $200 with a two-year contract. It was the first BlackBerry to come with a camera and a microSD slot.
BlackBerry Curve (2007)(08 of14)
Open Image Modal
The BlackBerry Curve 8300 came with a camera, a 3.5 headphone jack and a full QWERTY keyboard. It was pretty cheap - $200 on contract - but looked more like a high-end professional device.
BlackBerry Bold (2008)(09 of14)
Open Image Modal
The BlackBerry Bold is in some ways the ultimate BlackBerry - sleek, dark, with a full QWERTY keyboard and support for 3G networks, 1GB of memory and a higher-resolution display, it pretty much opitimises what the BlackBerry was all about.
BlackBerry Storm (2008)(10 of14)
Open Image Modal
The Storm was BlackBerry's first phone without a keyboard, and it launched to mixed reviews. It was clear that RIM's software wasn't able to keep up with the current crop of devices, and that BlackBerry needed a relaunch. That wouldn't happen until 2013.
BlackBerry Torch (2010)(11 of14)
Open Image Modal
The BlackBerry torch was pitched as the first "elite" consumer offering from RIM. It's slider form factor, full keyboard and touchscreen placed it as the mid point between and iPhone and an old school Blackberry, but for reviewers it wasn't able to do either job well and it failed to gain much attention.
BlackBerry Z10 (2013)(12 of14)
Open Image Modal
Launched in the first quarter of 2013, the Z10 was the first smartphone to run on Blackberry 10, a QNX based OS. The interface was optimised for gestures and touch, and featured an Android layer, which allowed users to install Android apps. Specs wise, the Z10 featured a 1.5 GHz dual core processor and a 4.2-inch screen, a micro HDMI port for presentations and NFC for mobile payments.
BlackBerry Z30 (2013)(13 of14)
Open Image Modal
The Z30 was their flagship phone of 2013, the OS was updated to 10.2, the Z30 integrated a faster processor and a 5-inch Super AMOLED display, along with a 2880 mAh battery. Reviewers praised the hardware and design, but complained about the steep learning curve of the user interface.
BlackBerry Passport (2014)(14 of14)
Open Image Modal
BlackBerry Passport has a 4.5-inch screen in an unconventional 1:1 aspect ratio. It incorporates a 13 megapixel camera, a physical QWERTY keyboard that can be used like a trackpad, and a 3450 mAh battery, the largest on a BlackBerry yet.
-- This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.