The first new product is the BlackBerry Z3, an “all-touch” phone designed for the Indonesian market. The phone includes a five-inch screen and runs the company’s BlackBerry 10 (BB10) operating system. The Z3 is expected to be available in April and is the first phone that BlackBerry has farmed out to Foxconn under the strategic partnership between the two firms.
A new keyboard phone, the Q20, will sit at the top end of the company’s line of keyboard phones when it becomes available in the second half of this year. Just as Samsung said that it listened to its customers when deciding what features to add to its new Galaxy S5 smartphone, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said:
I consistently heard from our ardent BlackBerry customers that the hard buttons and trackpad are an essential part of the BlackBerry QWERTY experience, that made their BlackBerry smartphone their go-to productivity tool. I want these customers to know that we heard them, and this new smartphone will be for them.
The big question for the company is how many of these diehards are there?
BlackBerry also announced that automaker Daimler and airplane manufacturer Airbus have adopted the company’s Enterprise Service 10 smartphone management system. BlackBerry also rolled out an update to BB10 that will be available for many customers beginning today.
Investors boosted BlackBerry’s stock by about 6% Monday, and the shares added more than 8% Tuesday morning. What appears to be different about the company under John Chen is that it does its homework and then makes a decision. In the past, decisions seemed to take forever. BlackBerry may not be doing the right things now, but it is doing something. Whether that is enough to justify the big jump in the stock is arguable.
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) probably did at least as much for BlackBerry’s share price by coughing up $19 billion for WhatsApp. BlackBerry’s messenger service (BBM) got a boost from that, but its user base is barely 18% of that claimed by WhatsApp. Chen had this to say about BBM:
The potential is going to be huge. Until we get to the point that we can showcase that potential it is a bit too early to think about getting our $19 billion.
Shares of BlackBerry traded up more than 8% in mid-morning action, at $10.66 within a 52-week range of $5.44 to $16.82.
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