BlackBerry released its new Passport phone today, a 4.5-inch keyboard smartphone aimed at corporate users.
John Chen, charged with turning around Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry since last November, has said the company's future rests on rebuilding its relations with the enterprise market, long a core of its business.
The Passport is "designed from the ground up for the working professional in mind," the company says in a blog post.
Chen told the crowd at the Toronto launch on Wednesday that the company's restructuring process is over and the company is focusing on growth.
The new smartphone's hefty design — the size of a passport, or perhaps a suit pocket — has a screen that will show 60 characters across. That means spreadsheets, medical charts and other enterprise-friendly information will be readable.
The Passport:
- Is 1,440 x 1,440 pixels square, with 453 dots per inch, or DPI, resolution.
- Has a screen made from Gorilla glass.
- Has a QWERTY keyboard layout, a comfortable holdover from early BlackBerry designs.
- Has an extra-loud speakerphone, 350 per cent louder than the Samsung Galaxy S5.
- Has a device switch app that allows users to import data from other phones
- Has a reported 30-hour battery life
- Includes 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage space
"I have to tell you, I just fell in love with the phone when I came in," said Chen, who said it was mostly finished before he started with the company.
The phone also features a physical keyboard that doubles as a virtual keyboard — users can swipe the physical keyboard to add words onscreen while typing, or to move around a cursor on the screen.
CBC reporter Matthew Kang, who was at the Toronto launch, described it as a "hybrid of keyboard, mouse and touch screen."
Chen also confirmed that the BlackBerry Classic phone will be released by the end of the year.
As well, there could be details released Wednesday about BlackBerry Blend, a service that lets users connect to BlackBerry phones from desktops, laptops or tablets, as well as the Classic Q20 phone.
This summer, Chen, who is known for turning around Sybase in the 1990s, said BlackBerry's core restructuring was over. The job cuts are finished and the company is back on a growth footing, he said.
BlackBerry's chief has made the manufacturing and supply chain more efficient and raised cash via the sale of the company's extensive real estate holdings.
But none of that counts unless he can create a portfolio of hardware and services that appeals to professional customers, and then start turning a profit.
Chen told the Wall Street Journal the Passport will go on sale in the United States at a no-contract price of $599 US, comparable with the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S5.
The famed BlackBerry security remains an appealing selling point — it's hard to hack.
But equally important will be a raft of services to be released this fall to support the new phones.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen shows off the new Passport, left, and Classic phone models at the company's annual general meeting this June. The Passport, by the Waterloo, Ont.-based company, was officially released Tuesday. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press)
A BlackBerry Enterprise Server 12 update is planned for November and is expected to introduce cloud storage before year-end. Also on the menu are apps designed for business use.
BlackBerry Passport's performance will be a test of Chen's strategy as well as an indication of the potential for the company as a whole.
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