Tag: blackberry q10

Technology news heats up as keyboards return to BlackBerry smartphones

| March 3, 2014

The launch event brought back the highly beloved feature to the struggling manufacturer’s handsets.

BlackBerry Ltd. has now unveiled its next smartphone offerings and these mobile devices are making exciting technology news headlines with the long awaited (and hoped for) return of the key-based keyboard built into handsets.

The lack of touch screen keyboard had always been a draw before the brand’s massive decline.

Also revealed in this technology news from BlackBerry was a lower cost smartphone that will make its way to market shelves in April. Its own server software for organizations will also be experiencing an important and flashy update, to try to enhance the experience that it provides while the company fights for it life to become relevant once more.

The BlackBerry technology news will be impacting consumers from various regions around the world.

For example, the inexpensive version of the smartphone, the Z3, will make its way into the Indonesian market first, followed by other Asian markets. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to those who have followed BlackBerry’s movements, as this has been what was predicted for the handset maker. The company has revealed that these mobile devices will sell for under $200, without subsidies.Technology News - BlackBerry Keyboard

After that point, it will expand the sale of the device to other southeast Asian markets, which is a region of the world in which the company has been able to keep hold of a notable market share, despite the massive competition with other mobile devices.

For the North American market – particularly in the United States – BlackBerry has become nearly nonexistent, with iOS and Android establishing themselves as the primary leaders in that space. The hope now is that the Q20 smartphone will greatly outperform last year’s release of the Q10. This new version of the device is what the CEO of the company, John Chen, has called “Classic” in its design. This refers primarily to the restoration of a keyboard based on keys, instead of a touchscreen.

BlackBerry responded to the technology news that its consumers enjoyed the keys on their devices and didn’t want to lose them. Now, they’re being brought back to appeal to those consumers, once more.

Mobile marketing causes friction between T-Mobile and BlackBerry

| February 25, 2014

The CEO of the struggling Canadian handset maker is upset with the carrier for its latest efforts.

Although aggressive traditional and mobile marketing is nothing new for T-Mobile, its latest strategy has caused a great deal of tension between it and BlackBerry.

The cellular service provider sent all of its BlackBerry using customers an email encouraging a switch to iPhone 5S.

This mobile marketing campaign didn’t take long to reach BlackBerry, where the news was far from welcome. Even its CEO, John Chen, was displeased, causing him to send a personal response to the promotion. He stated that “I can only guess that T-Mobile thought its ‘great offer for BlackBerry customers’ would be well received. T-Mobile could not have been more wrong”, in a post that he uploaded onto his blog.

Chen wasn’t the only one who was put off by T-Mobile’s mobile marketing strategy.Mobile marketing between t-mobile and blackberry

Despite the fact that the number of BlackBerry customers have been rapidly shrinking, to the point that they are barely a fraction of what they formerly were when they lead the market, its core loyal customer group is a very vocal one.

In response to the outcry, the Chief Marketing Officer at T-Mobile, Mike Sievert, expressed that “The passion we’ve seen from the BlackBerry Loyal over the past couple days has been amazing. I want you to know we’ve heard you.”

Chen added in his blog that he assured the disappointed and frustrated customers that they weren’t the only ones who were feeling outraged by T-Mobile’s strategy. He also pointed out that he was confused by the fact that T-Mobile didn’t even bother to speak with BlackBerry before going ahead and launching a promotion that was “clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived.”

T-Mobile has since attempted to make amends for its decision, offering a $200 credit for any customer who would trace in a working BlackBerry device, which will be bumped up to $250 if that credit is to be used against the purchase of a new BlackBerry Q10 or Z10 device. Clearly, this has greatly changed the tone of this mobile marketing promotion when it comes to that particular brand of mobile devices.