The Canadian mobile maker, Blackberry (BBRY, Financial) is currently witnessing a drop in its handset sales amid intense competition from rivals like Apple (AAPL, Financial), Samsung (SSNLF, Financial) and Google (GOOG, Financial). But the company still has the will to fight back and is investing in the Passport, a new smartphone expected to hit the market this month. Can the new offering help the company see some revival in sales? Let’s dig into the matter to find the answer.
Passport might hold a wide appeal
Blackberry has made attractive design changes in the latest tablet-like smartphone which is often referred to as the “phablet.” The new model fuses the company’s signature QWERTY keyboard, slimmed to three rows and is purely alphabetical, with an unusual 4.5-inch square display.
As per reviews leaked by Czech website Mobilenet.cz, this smartphone would feature Corning Gorilla glass 3 protection for the display. This exclusive feature matches the current display standards in the existing Apple iPhones ruling over the smartphone market.
It also has a physical keyboard with touch capabilities, giving users the best of both worlds. As this model has a squarish shape, it makes it ideal for reading books or viewing documents. Also, the 240,000 Andriod apps included from Amazon.com makes it highly appealing to developers.
Having said that, this smartphone might be a sure hit with consumers when released, but the real appeal would be in the enterprise space with Blackberry’s Project Ion initiative. The Waterloo-based company hopes that this device will be vastly used by enterprise customers it has recently lost to its rivals Apple and Google. It hopes that government, finance and health care workers could find this device’s dimensions ideal for their work.
Blackberry backing on enterprise usage
While Blackberry used to be the hottest favorite among retail consumers, today it’s a device mainly used among businesses. In fact, CEO John Chen recently admitted that 80% of Blackberry’s 50 million subscribers are business units. Therefore, Blackberry wants the Passport to be a hit among enterprises first, though retail customers are also being deemed as important for sales revival.
This logic explains the rationale behind the large square phone having 50% more information side-by-side, and indeed the Passport allows for 60 characters while most of the existing rectangular phones hold only 40 characters (which includes the current iPhones that sells like hot cakes). Nevertheless, the company has also invested in top-notch security features like device management in the smartphone which is the first model supporting the BlackBerry 10.3 OS.
Coping with competition
Among the remarkable features that could immediately catch customers’ attention are the 3GB RAM, 32 GB inbuilt storage which is expandable using the microSD card till 64 GB, a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera. The smartphone supports Nano-SIM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G and 4G LTE connectivity options. Moreover, it is likely to debut the use of the Blackberry Assistant that could execute multiple functions at the same point in time if the user provides voice-based instructions.
Through the launch of the Blackberry Assistant, the company is trying to match its rivals’ offerings such as Apple Siri, Google Now, Microsoft (MSFT, Financial) Cortana – all of which are existing voice-based virtual assistants. Blackberry Assistant is voice activated, and helps manage simple tasks like searching from email or calendar, finding out what’s trending on Twitter to sending trivia night invitations. The more it gets used, the more it learns and get adapted to the user commands. The Blackberry assistant has certain extra features missing among its competitors, such as it can perform simple voice commands like “Turn on the flashlight,” something not too difficult to execute but missing in the Siri voice assistant of Apple.
The 32 GB Passport would come at a starting range of nearly $758, while the Apple iPhone 5s when launched in the market last year came with a premium price tag of $1188 for the 32 GB model variant.
To conclude
At the very least, the Passport means a huge deal for Blackberry, as it partners with Amazon and Android allowing employees to interact with consumers who also have Blackberry devices. In the words of IDC’s research analyst, Ramon Llamas: “It’s great to see BlackBerry step outside of its comfort zone and forge its own path in terms of design.” Indeed, Blackberry is on a mission to keep its growth pace steady compared with competitors, and the Passport does testify this statement through the upgraded features. Let’s keep a close watch on the final launch of the Blackberry Passport as the company’s endeavors seem to be enormously linked to it.
