BlackBerry released its new Passport phone today, a keyboard smartphone with a 4.5-inch screen aimed at corporate users.
John Chen, charged with turning around Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry since last November, has said the company's future rests on rebuilding its relations with the enterprise market, long a core of its business.
The Passport is on sale starting today, and only available at Telus for the first few weeks. Users will pay $200 for the phone on a two-year contract, which jumps to $250 starting Oct. 1.
Users who want to buy the phone without a contract will pay $699.
The new smartphone's hefty design — the size of a passport, or perhaps a suit pocket — has a screen that will show 60 characters across. That means spreadsheets, medical charts and other enterprise-friendly information will be readable.
The Passport specifications:
- Screen is 1,440 x 1,440 pixels square, with 453 dots per inch, or DPI, resolution.
- Gorilla glass screen.
- QWERTY keyboard layout, a comfortable holdover from early BlackBerry designs.
- Extra-loud speakerphone, 350 per cent louder than that of the Samsung Galaxy S5.
- Device switch app that allows users to import data from other phones
- Reported 30-hour battery life
- Includes 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage space
- 13 megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization
- Rear camera has f2.0 lens and 1080p HD video recording that can shoot 60 frames per second
- 2 megapixel front camera with 720p HD video recording
"I have to tell you, I just fell in love with the phone when I came in," said Chen, who said it was mostly finished before he started with the company.
The phone also features a physical keyboard that doubles as a virtual keyboard — users can swipe the physical keyboard to add words onscreen while typing, or to move around a cursor on the screen.
CBC reporter Matthew Kang, who was at the Toronto launch, described it as a "hybrid of keyboard, mouse and touch screen."
Representatives from Bloomberg business news were also on hand to announce a Passport-specific app, available at the end of October, that will allows users to see an increased number of stock quotes at once.
Chen also confirmed that the BlackBerry Classic phone will be released by the end of the year, but wouldn't provide any more detail to reporters.
BlackBerry Blend
The company launched BlackBerry Blend, an app that syncs data across computers and mobile devices including smartphones and tablets, without needing a virtual private network. Not only does it sync across devices, but across operating systems.
A user can receive BBM notifications on a desktop computer running Windows, or share a file from an Android tablet, for example. It also allows users to sync with third-party online storage systems like DropBox, and works on Apple computers and tablets.
Blend isn't cloud computing system, however, as the files are natively stored on the Passport smartphone, which has 32 G of included storage.
Blend is available today in various app stores, including Apple's App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore and BlackBerry World.
Capturing fans
Chen told the crowd at the Toronto launch on Wednesday that the company's restructuring process is over and the company is focusing on growth. Chen is known for turning around Sybase in the 1990s.
BlackBerry's chief has made the manufacturing and supply chain more efficient and raised cash via the sale of the company's extensive real estate holdings.
But none of that counts unless he can create a portfolio of hardware and services that appeals to professional customers, and then start turning a profit.
Chen told the Wall Street Journal the Passport will go on sale in the United States at a no-contract price of $599 US, comparable with the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S5. That's $100 less than in Canada.
AT&T will be the exclusive carrier in the U.S., according to Chen on Wednesday.
The famed BlackBerry security remains an appealing selling point — it's hard to hack.
But equally important will be a raft of services to be released this fall to support the new phones.
A BlackBerry Enterprise Server 12 update is planned for November and is expected to introduce cloud storage before year-end. Also on the menu are apps designed for business use.
BlackBerry Passport's performance will be a test of Chen's strategy as well as an indication of the potential for the company as a whole.
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