BlackBerry will this week launch a new inexpensive phone in Indonesia, one of its last strongholds, a major step in the ailing smartphone maker’s fightback against giants Samsung and Apple.
The Z3, which is basically designed for Indonesia but is expected to be launched in other emerging markets later, is the first new BB phone since chief executive John Chen took charge of the crisis-hit company in November.
Also, the handset is the first to be produced from the Canadian firm’s partnership with Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, which manufactures gadgets for Apple, and is a key test of whether the new strategy will work.
The company feels that the handset will be a big success in Indonesia, where many have remained loyal to BlackBerry, with a spokesman saying that “this product will deliver something that should appeal to consumers”.
But analysts think it may already be too late for a comeback by the company that initiated the modern smartphone culture but has failed to keep up with competition from Apple’s iPhone and handsets using the Google Android operating system.
Recent years have been rather disappointing for BlackBerry, and it has suffered heavy losses and laid thousands of jobs.
The company even put itself up for sale last year but gave up hopes of finding a buyer several months later, and sacked chief executive Thorsten Heins.
Since Chen took over, there have been a few signs of improvement. Although the company suffered a loss of $423 million in the three months to March 1, it was not as bad as had been expected.
As part of its turnaround plan, BB announced the link with Foxconn in December, which involves transferring to the Taiwan company manufacturing and inventory management, while allowing BlackBerry to focus on software and services.
BlackBerry has decided to unveil its first new phone from the partnership in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy with large number of social media-mad young consumers, where its devices remain popular but it has nevertheless lost ground in recent years.
The phone has a five inch (13 centimetre) touchscreen, similar to most of BlackBerry’s newest handsets which do not have the physical keyboards of the older devices.
It is designed particularly with Indonesian consumers in mind. The messaging service of Blackberry –wildly popular in Indonesia — comes loaded with pictures of local cartoon characters for users to send to one another.
There is also a limited edition with “Jakarta” engraved on it.
BlackBerry believes the cheap price — it will retail for around $200 — will be a positive selling point.
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