Struggling Canadian phone-maker BlackBerry yesterday unveiled its latest budget handset, the Z3, and announced in a media statement that the device will be available across the UAE immediately for Dh899.
“Following our recent announcement of the BlackBerry Z3 coming to the Middle East, we are excited to let you know that BlackBerry Z3 is officially available from July 6 at leading telecom retailers and the BlackBerry store in Dubai Mall,” the company said in the statement.
The Z3 is the first BlackBerry device to be manufactured by Foxconn, a well-known Apple partner and supplier of iPhones and iPads. BlackBerry has entered into a five-year agreement with manufacturing giant Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles products in vast factories in China.
The company launched the Z3 smartphone in Indonesia, Iraq and India last month before bringing it to the UAE.
BlackBerry has been struggling with failed launches and mounting losses, but the company announced a minor victory last month when its new CEO John Chen announced first quarter financial results this year – the company endured lower losses than expected, and had sold more smartphones than analysts expected.
Chen however acknowledged in his briefing that although the minor victory was sweet, BlackBerry has a long way to go. Once a market leader, BlackBerry was the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and other consumers before Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, showing that phones could handle much more than email and calls.
New entrants into the smartphones domain, including Samsung along with Apple, took the game away from BlackBerry who was blamed for not innovating at all during a 10-year period that saw it falling from a market leadership position to an also-ran.
Then last year, the company unveiled the Z10, which should have been its return ticket to stardom, but BlackBerry failed miserably to capitalise on a good product. Read: BlackBerry Z10: The biggest thing to happen to BlackBerry since BlackBerry?
However, ever since the launch of the new phone from the rebranded BlackBerry, the Z10 was fraught with supply issues and, more than that, the unveiling of newer offerings from rivals, including the HTC One, the Sony Xperia Z and the Samsung Galaxy S4.
The device that had showed a lot of promise during its launch early last year eventually headed downhill. Read: BlackBerry Z10 sales & prices are sinking: Blame Samsung Galaxy S4
The company seems to be now banking its hopes on entry-level models, and is even giving a host of discounts and offers on the low-priced model.
The firm is extending an app offer to those buying the device in July, allowing free downloads of ‘premium apps’ worth Dh200. In addition, it said in its statement that from June 29 to July 27, all BlackBerry 10 users can enjoy complimentary apps worth Dh170.
Many analysts maintain that the Z3 is BlackBerry’s last-ditch attempt to salvage the company, and the fate of the low-end device will decide whether BlackBerry has any hopes of a revival.
The company had late last month announced that it had opened pre-orders for the BlackBerry Z3 in the UAE and that it will start shipping the devices by July.
During the phone’s global launch in February this year, BlackBerry CEO John Chen had said a version with faster, 4G connectivity is planned “sometime in the future before I die.”