In a recent announcement, Canadian handset manufacturer BlackBerry said that it plans to launch its newest Android-powered flagship smartphone - BlackBerry Priv - in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in January 2016. The CEO hopes to be able to continue to sell the phone at its high-end price until new devices launch from competitors at Mobile World Congress in late February.
In John Chen's statements was not mentioned a possible release date for the new device, but hinted that it all depends on how well will the Blackberry Priv sell in the near future.
The small gains are progress for a company in the midst of a turnaround, but there is still work ahead.
What about the BlackBerry Priv, which was just recently released as the company's first-ever Android smartphone?
Chen has affirmed that if the first Blackberry smartphone performs better then they will concentrate on the high-end, closer to mid-range phone that can be rolled as early as by 2016.
Although, the sales figure year over year at Blackberry was down, the sales number for the third quarter is better than for the second quarter, which was $201 million.
During the Bloomberg interview, Mr. Chen said BlackBerry is interested in establishing more partnership with Samsung Electronics, but so much on the hardware side.
The news boosted the company's stock as much as 12.6%. Blackberry Priv was sold out in less than 24 hours.
It signifies that BlackBerry may take into accounts a barely cheaper Android smartphone for subsequent yr.
"My first goal is to get us into a break-even position with the device business, because you really couldn't do anything strategically with a business that continues to lose money", the Chief Executive said, courtesy of Tech Aeris.
Smartphones still account for 40% of BlackBerry's revenue but the company's growth is coming entirely from software products, which help businesses and government track their employees' mobile devices and secure their data. According to him, the company is planning to expand the availability of Priv from four countries to 31 countries in the next 2-3 months.
The company offers a few cross-platform apps such as BlackBerry Messenger which are available for all Android (and iOS) users.
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