It will go on sale in several locations on September 24

Sep 22, 2014 14:49 GMT  ·  By

The next square thing from BlackBerry is going official on September 24 when the Canadian company is expected to announce the Passport, a brand new smartphone meant to regain some of the customers it lost to other mobile platforms.

The good news is BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen has recently confirmed that the Passport will be available for purchase in the United States from September 24 for $599 (€465) off contract. However, the outright price will be different in other countries where BlackBerry plans to introduce the new mobile device.

Chen also told Wall Street Journal that, compared with the competition’s similar smartphones, BlackBerry Passport should have been priced at around $700 (€545) outright. In this regard, BlackBerry’s CEO stated that “to try to get the market interested, we're going to start a little lower than that.”

BlackBerry Passport will be launched this Wednesday in three major cities simultaneously: Toronto, London and Dubai. As mentioned earlier, the smartphone will go on sale the same day, but only in a few locations.

However, the Passport should be widely available in at least several countries in one to two weeks after the official announcement. There’s no word on any carrier deals for the moment, but Canadians should expect much lower prices on the smartphone with 2-year agreements.