Feb 25, 2014

BlackBerry Q20 Smartphone To Feature Trackpad And 3.5" Touchscreen

BlackBerry Limited (BBRY: Quote,BB.TO: Quote) unveiled a new flagship smartphone designed to deliver its full and distinctive QWERTY experience on BlackBerry 10. The company said that the new BlackBerry Q20 smartphone will feature the familiar and classic 'Menu','Back','Send' and 'End' buttons and the integrated trackpad to enable the fast efficient navigation and one-handed use that has endeared the brand to its QWERTY customers.



According to the company, the BlackBerry Q20 smartphone will include a generous 3.5" touchscreen, the largest display yet on a QWERTY BlackBerry smartphone, giving customers more space for viewing messages, browsing Internet and intranet sites and accessing other apps.

The company stated that the BlackBerry Q20 smartphone will come with the latest enhancements in BlackBerry 10 that continue to set the brand apart as the best and most secure tool for mobile productivity and reliable communications. The new smartphone will be available in the second half of 2014. Further details on pricing and availability will be announced at launch.

In a separate press release, BlackBerry announced the BlackBerry Z3 smartphone, a new all-touch BlackBerry 10 smartphone designed with Indonesian customers in mind. Made for the next generation of BlackBerry customers in Indonesia, and customized with local apps and content, the stylish new BlackBerry Z3 smartphone features a modern design with a 5" display, long lasting battery and comes with BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1.

"BlackBerry is beloved in Indonesia and its loyal fans have made it a popular smartphone brand. This is why we are so proud to be able to help bring BlackBerry even closer to Indonesia with a fantastic product that will be accessible to even more Indonesians. This is only the beginning of what we know will be a long and fruitful partnership between Foxconn and BlackBerry," said Terry Gou, Founder and Chairman, Foxconn.

The new BlackBerry Z3 smartphone is expected to be available from leading carriers and retailers in Indonesia in April. Further details on pricing and availability will be announced at launch.

Separately, BlackBerry announced the eBBM Suite, a new family of products and services that work with BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry enterprise solution, BES and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, to provide enterprise-class mobile messaging that brings together the core strengths of BBM with features and capabilities aimed at enterprises.

The company stated that BBM Protected will provide an unrivalled level of trust in enterprise messaging with end-to-end encryption of messages that uses symmetric encryption keys for BBM messages and best-in-class technology for public-private signing and encryption key pairs.

For IT administrators and infrastructure managers, BBM Protected will work across BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS smartphones in regulated mode with no OS upgrades required.

BBM Protected as part of the eBBM Suite is expected to launch this summer and will be available to enterprise customers through a monthly per-user fee.

In addition, BlackBerry announced that Daimler AG and Airbus Group are among the latest multinational customers to adopt BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) and BlackBerry 10 smartphones.
Additionally, BlackBerry unveiled plans for BlackBerry Enterprise Service 12 or BES12, a new enterprise mobility solution that is application-enabled and unifies BES10 and BES5 to one platform.

In addition, a new promotional program will provide free migration to BES10, while a new pricing structure enables customers to simplify their enterprise mobility management or EMM environment to a single trusted provider.
BlackBerry said its enterprise strategy is to extend beyond EMM to an application-based environment and ecosystem that provides a highly productive end-user experience. This will enable organizations to develop and deploy new services to mobile devices faster. By doing so, BlackBerry will target a global market that IDC has forecasted to reach $4.8 billion by 2017.

BlackBerry also announced a new EZ Pass program that provides free migration for customers to move from BES and other MDM platforms to BES10 as well as a new pricing structure.

For existing BlackBerry customers, the EZ Pass program will match any active existing on-premise BES license and any active license customers may have from other MDM vendors with a corresponding Silver level BES10 perpetual license.

The new pricing and licensing structure will provide two simple tiers, Silver and Gold. Silver includes full device, application, email and security management for BlackBerry, iOS and Android devices, including the unique BlackBerry Balance technology for BlackBerry 10 smartphones. Gold adds BlackBerry's Secure Work Space containerization solution for iOS and Android, and advanced BlackBerry 10 management and security features for the most security-conscious organizations, including government, financial services and healthcare.

The BES12 platform is expected to be available by the end of 2014. An early adopter program will be open for participation this summer.

The EZ Pass offer including Advantage-level technical support will be available March 31, 2014 through January 31, 2015.

The Silver and Gold pricing structure will be in effect beginning March 31, 2014.

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