BlackBerry 10 is the latest operating system from Canadian firm BlackBerry which the company launched at the start of February. The new software currently powers the latest BlackBerry Z10 smartphone and soon consumers will be able to experience it on BlackBerry Q10 as well. Andrew MacLeod, Managing Director of BlackBerry Canada, has revealed back in February that “the Q10 would be available with our global carrier partners in the April time frame.” Initially it was made known that BlackBerry is looking to launch a total of six different BB10 devices during this year along with a new PlayBook. However, now it seems that the Canadian smartphone manufacturer is looking to further boost its portfolio, as according to the latest updates BlackBerry has plans to release devices that will be powered by its old OS, BB7.
Explaining about the new move, Chief Executive Officer of BlackBerry, Thorsten Heins said during a conference that, “BB7 is still very successful in various markets. We’re planning to launch BB7 products to really serve that market segmentation in those countries.”
It appears that BlackBerry may limit the latest BB10 OS to high-end devices only such as Z10, Q10 and more, as it may not be possible for the company to bring it to the low-end devices in the coming months. Perhaps Heins and company are looking to persist with the old BB7 OS when it comes to target emerging markets, where inexpensive smartphones still have a high demand. Although, BB7 is an old legacy OS, BlackBerry will produce refreshed hardware for the OS in order to keep the platform pertinent in developing markets.
In brief, BlackBerry is looking to cover all three tiers in the market by introducing different ranges of handsets, but some may criticise the Canadian company for adapting this approach, as they will say it will unnecessarily increase the risk for the smartphone maker. On the other hand, some will support this approach from BlackBerry, as their argument will be that the Waterloo-based company has so far successfully covered all three tiers of the market for so many years and it should continue this strategy.
Apart from this argument, the added advantage of bringing in BB7 devices will be that it will make guaranteed service income for BlackBerry that is not possible with the BB10 devices.
Source: TechVibes
Photo: GadgetFreak
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