BlackBerry’s recently appointed CEO John Chen has revealed that the company plans to launch two new smartphones this year in the form of the BlackBerry Z3 – codenamed ‘Jakarta’ – and the BlackBerry Q20.
The company made the announcement at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday, confirming that the Z3 is first set to go on sale in Indonesia in April this year and is set to cost less than $200. The 3G version of the device will then be offered more widely, with an LTE model planned for release at a later date.
The 5-inch display-equipped Z3 will arrive running BlackBerry 10.2.
The second device announced today is the Qwerty-equipped BlackBerry Q20, a follow up to its Q10 device released previously. Chen said the aim of the Q20 was to “return productivity to the professional”. He also said the device will go on sale before the end of the calendar year.
In pursuit of this, the company is integrating the ‘Menu’, ‘Back’, ‘Send’, ‘End’ buttons and trackpad to be “an integral part of the device and user interface, enabling fast, precise navigation and a natural workflow within and between apps”.
In addition to announcing the two mid-range models, Chen did confirm that the company was working on new high-end devices too, but couldn’t share any details at this stage.
When quizzed over the possibility of the company introducing wearable devices, Chen said it wasn’t in BlackBerry’s immediate future, or “at least not yet”.
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