MUMBAI: BlackBerry Ltd launched the much-hyped Classic device targeted at the ardent BlackBerry fans. The company wants to sell maximum possible units of the Smartphone, and for this it is moving to India. Classic device can now be obtained from the Snap deal, an online store, at a price tag of INR 31,990 i.e. $518.
India a potential market for BlackBerry
First 1000 customers interested in trading their Blackberry Bold devices for a Classic will get a buyback bonus of Rupees 4,500 (around $80), and both the companies hope that this offer will be able to drum up the sales of the Classic device.
In a statement, managing director of BlackBerry India, Sunil Lalvani said, “With the launch of BlackBerry Classic, we bring back the unique BlackBerry QWERTY experience that made the BlackBerry smartphones a users’ go-to productivity tool.”
India, the second most populated country in the world, presents a huge market for BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB). Many of the developed markets have already replaced BlackBerry with iPhones and Android, but many of the emerging markets still hold importance for the Canadian firm of which India is one.
Indian customers were very fond of the Passport device as revealed by Blackberry last October. BlackBerry’s Smartphone market share in India has reduced down to 0.5% in recent years; therefore, it is very important for the company to make its new device Classic sell in maximum possible quantity.
Need more devices to stay relevant
BlackBerry Classic is a device that bears most of the physical characteristics of the earlier BlackBerry devices. The square-shaped device has a physical QWERTY keyboard, and comes with an ability of running Android apps. The resolution offered by the 3.5-inch screen is 720×720 pixels, and it offers an internal storage of 16GB which can be expanded to 128GB with the help of microSD card. The device runs on the BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.3, and is powered with a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus processor.
