BlackBerry Ltd. today announced two new smartphones, the Blackberry Z3 and Qwerty keyboard equipped Q20.
Blackberry unveiled a new flagship – the BlackBerry Q20 smartphone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona., aimed to deliver a full and distinctive QWERTY experience on BlackBerry 10. It will feature a 3.5 inch touchscreen and a keypad with frets and sculpted keys.
“In my first 90 days on the job, 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,” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO at BlackBerry.
The new BlackBerry Q20 smartphone will feature the familiar and classic ‘Menu’, ‘Back’, ‘Send’ and ‘End’ buttons and the integrated trackpad to enable the fast and efficient navigation for one-handed use that has endeared the brand to its QWERTY customers.
The company also announced the BlackBerry Z3 smartphone, a new all-touch BlackBerry 10 smartphone (designed with Indonesian customers in mind). Made for the next generation of BlackBerry customers in Indonesia, and customized with local apps and content, the stylish new BlackBerry Z3 smartphone features a modern design with a 5” display, long lasting battery and comes with BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1.
“We are excited to introduce the new BlackBerry Z3, the first smartphone to emerge from our strategic partnership with Foxconn, which was announced in mid-December, 2013,” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO at BlackBerry. “The BlackBerry Z3 embodies all that BlackBerry 10 offers, with its exceptional productivity features and reliable communications, in a stylish, all-touch design made affordable for customers in Indonesia.”
The Z3 is the company’s first product to emerge from the Company’s strategic partnership with Foxconn.
BlackBerry also plans to introduce new enterprise solutions with the unveiling of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 12 (BES12), a new enterprise mobility solution that is application-enabled and unifies BES10 and BES5 onto one platform. In addition, a new promotional program will provide free migration to BES10, while a new pricing structure enables customers to simplify their enterprise mobility management (EMM) environment to a single trusted provider. BlackBerry also revealed some of the latest companies to adopt BES10, including Daimler AG and Airbus Group.
These new tools for business and government customers would unify it’s existing platforms and provide clients with additional flexibility and security.
As the BES5 manages BlackBerry’s older generation of devices, the BES10 offering would allow clients to manage it’s next gen devices powered by its BlackBerry 10 OS, including the devices that run on iOS and Android.
The Canadian manufacturer plans to launch BES12 by the end of 2014, and will integrate the existing BES10 and BES5 platforms that its customers currently use in order to manage mobile devices on their internal corporate and government networks.
BlackBerry also announced the Enterprise BBM (eBBM) Suite, a new family of products and services that work with BlackBerry smartphones and BES and BES10. BBM Protected will be the first solution offered in the new eBBM Suite, bringing the most secure and reliable real-time mobile messaging in the industry for regulated industries .
The service allows employees of an organization to chat with their colleagues under a level of enhanced security, allowing real time and secure messaging. BBM Protected, which is launching this summer, will be part of a broader suite of enterprise-focused BBM services which will be offered to enterprise customers that pay a monthly per-user fee, BlackBerry said in a separate statement on Tuesday.
The new BlackBerry Z3 smartphone is expected to be available from leading carriers and retailers in Indonesia in April. The new BlackBerry Q20 smartphone will be available in the second half of 2014. Further details on pricing and availability for both smartphones will be announced at its launch.
The BES12 platform will be available by the end of 2014. An early adopter program will be open for participation this summer. For more information on BlackBerry’s enterprise mobility management solutions, follow the link here.
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