Armina Ligaya
NEW YORK — BlackBerry Ltd. has unveiled its Classic smartphone — a throwback to its earlier devices featuring a belt of buttons and a trackpad — in a bid to win over corporate customers.
The Waterloo, Ont.-based technology company is launching its newest device in three events on Wednesday in New York, Frankfurt and Singapore.
“When I went to visit customers, CEOs, top banks in this town. A lot of them pulled out their BlackBerrys, the 9900 and the Curve. And they said, don’t mess around with this thing,” BlackBerry chief executive and chairman John Chen said Wednesday.
The BlackBerry Classic will be available for $499 with no contract (and directly from ShopBlackBerry.com), and for $49 with a two year contract from Bell or Rogers. Telus charges $50 for the device, with a two year contract. Wind Mobile has also announced it will carry the Classic, though it hasn’t publicized pricing yet.
The Classic is Mr. Chen’s latest move in his multi-year plan to turn around the struggling smartphone and software company.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen reveals phones during the news conference for the company’s new BlackBerry Classic phone, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014, in New York. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
His overarching aim is to pivot BlackBerry away from smartphones toward generating revenue from enterprise software and services, as the high-margin service revenue BlackBerry enjoyed with its older devices dwindles.
However, in the short-term, it is devices like the Classic and the recently launched square-screened Passport smartphone that will help generate revenue. Mr. Chen has said he aims to make BlackBerry operationally profitable by the next fiscal year.
‘“It’s been a very busy year for us, but it’s been a gratifying year,” Mr. Chen said Wednesday.
The Passport was in the works before Mr. Chen took on the top role at BlackBerry last November, but the Classic was developed under his supervision and is the product of feedback the chief executive got from consumers.
Mr. Chen has said he expects the Classic, with its row of function keys including call, menu, trackpad, back and end buttons and a keyboard, to outsell the Passport by volume. On the first day after the Passport launch in September, BlackBerry received 200,000 pre-orders.
But Mark Sue, analyst with RBC Capital Markets, is skeptical that the Classic will get as much attention.
“Classic is unlikely to generate buzz like the Passport, but there’s a large number of QWERTY keyboard fans that may upgrade,” he said in a note to clients on Monday.
Source:: canada.com
