While some phone makers are making devices more and more affordable, BlackBerry has no wishes to compete in the budget phone arena, CEO Thorsten Heins said this week.
At a conference in Waterloo, Ontario, Heins reiterated the fact that BlackBerry has no current plans to release phones at $50 to $60 (UK£33 to £40, AU$49 to $58) or below.
"This is not BlackBerry," he reportedly said.
That said, the Canadian phone maker will launch cheaper devices for developing markets like India, where the $800 (UK£530, AU$780) BlackBerry Z10 is currently available, said Bloomberg on Thursday. They just won't dip quite as low as phones from Asian rivals like ZTE and Huawei.
To reiterate
Heins was adding to a point that BlackBerry European MD Stephen Bates told TechRadar in February.
"We've brought out these high-end devices as a statement of intent - to demonstrate vividly the new BlackBerry," Bates said. "But we don't see us getting to the entry level tier for some time; certainly not this year."
Indeed, BlackBerry has focused on high-end smartphones since the launch of BlackBerry 10.
Compare that to what Finnish company Nokia is doing: the high-end market not being what it had hoped, Nokia announced several more affordable phones, including the Lumia 520.
Heins reported that the expensive Z10 sold out in India after just two days, so maybe BlackBerry won't have the same problem.
Source : techradar[dot]com
Post a Comment