14 DAY TRIAL // BlackBerry seems to be on a roll these days, as the company launched its new flagship smartphone, the Passport, which comes with BlackBerry 10.3 OS onboard.
The company reported that no less than 200,000 BlackBerry Passport units were pre-ordered in the first 48 hours since the smartphone was made available in the UK, Canada and UAE.
The number is quite low if we are to compare it with that of iPhone 6 units Apple sold in the first weekend: 10 million units. However, the comparison can’t quite stand given the fact that Apple and BlackBerry have different targets with their smartphones.
The Passport is mainly aimed at enterprise customers, which makes the number of units sold in the first two days quite honorable for BlackBerry, especially considering that the Canadian company sold 2.4 million handsets in Q2 2014.
BlackBerry Passport is likely to pave the way to another smartphone that has already been confirmed by the company’s CEO, John Chen. The Q10 or BlackBerry Classic will be the next smartphone launched by BlackBerry in the next couple of months.
The Classic will be the last BlackBerry smartphone launched this year, but a new device is expected to be unveiled early next year.
The first major mobile tech event each year, Consumer Electronics Show, takes place in Las Vegas in January, but BlackBerry will announce a new smartphone during the next tradeshow, Mobile World Congress 2015, which is scheduled for February.
The next concept device can be easily operated with only one hand
In an interview for Reuters, Blackberry’s Ron Louks confirmed that his company was already working on an “unconventional” smartphone that should be officially introduced at MWC 2015.
The new device has already been in the hands of carriers and has received positive feedback, which gives the company hopes that network operators will support BlackBerry’s new launches more often than not.
There are no additional details on how the smartphone will look or what specs it will offer under the hood, but Louks said the next upcoming handset would be easier to operate with only one hand.
We reported earlier this month that BlackBerry might launch a slider with a physical QWERTY keyboard that would feature a retractable cover. The so-called BlackBerry Victoria (or Visa) may be the next unconventional smartphone the Canadian company may launch next year, though we don’t have any confirmations yet.
BlackBerry’s financial situation seems to enable the company to take some risks, which is why we might see some kind of innovative device being released each year if the Passport and the upcoming smartphone are successful among mobile phone users.