BlackBerry started off the MWC at an amazing note by announcing their new Android powered smartphone BlackBerry KEYone. TCL has licensed to produce smartphones under the BlackBerry brand where BlackBerry itself works on the security and the software of the devices. BlackBerry, once a much loved market leader could not keep up with the fast paced developments in the smartphone industry and fell from grace. With BlackBerry KEYone the company is aiming at getting back into the market and appealing to people by what they do best. It looks as if KEYone will not be the only BlackBerry this year, we will be looking at two more smartphones.
This aspect was confirmed by TCL Communications CEO Nicolas Zibell who said that there will be up to three new BlackBerry smartphones this year and we should expect to see them at the end of the year. TCL is planning to work on new touch screen smartphone which will be an upgrade to the predecessor DTEK 50 and DTEK 60. These smartphones do not have the iconic QWERTY keyboard which the KEYone has.
This is an interesting development but why would TCL work on something that everyone in the market is already producing? What sets KEYone apart from the rest of the smartphones in the market is that it has a physical QWERTY keyboard along with the signature elements which gives added security to their smartphones. BlackBerry’s devices are known for being very secure and mostly appealed to the corporate sector given their software integrations. The company to be successful needs to find a niche market, along with that they have ti set up competitive prices for their devices. BlackBerry KEYone will retail at $549 and that we think is quite a high price given that the processor and other specs are not top notch. So, the company needs to work their strategy to get back in the game.
