14 DAY TRIAL // BlackBerry’s John Chen has just announced that his company will soon launch an affordable BlackBerry 10 smartphone and the first country to get it is Indonesia. BlackBerry Z3 is an all-touch smartphone that will be available for purchase for under $200 (€145) outright.
The sequel to the more expensive BlackBerry Z30 has been confirmed to arrive in Indonesia in April through all major carriers and authorized retailers.
This puts the BlackBerry Z3 launch around the same timeframe as the Samsung Galaxy S5’s, which should arrive on April 11.
However, even though Samsung has announced that its flagship smartphone will be available in 150 countries, we don’t have any confirmation that the device will arrive in Indonesia in April as well.
You may be wondering why BlackBerry is launching the Z3 in Indonesia initially, but if you have been closely following BlackBerry news, you know by now that the Canadian company’s market share in this country is very strong.
Unfortunately, that was the case until several months ago, as BlackBerry’s presence on the Indonesian market has weakened. This is probably one of the reasons that BlackBerry wishes to revitalize one of its traditional markets by launching a very cheap smartphone.
With BlackBerry Z3, the Canadian company hopes to regain some of the market share it lost in Indonesia, but that will be hard with Android and Windows Phone surging in emerging markets.
No other hardware-related details have been offered by the Canadian handset maker, but when it comes to software, BlackBerry has confirmed that the Z3 will ship with BlackBerry OS version 10.2.1.
It comes preloaded with the usual BlackBerry apps and services, including BlackBerry Hub, BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), BlackBerry Browser, FM Radio and virtual BlackBerry Keyboard.
“The BlackBerry Z3 embodies all that BlackBerry 10 offers, with its exceptional productivity features and reliable communications, in a stylish, all-touch design made affordable for customers in Indonesia,” said John Chen, executive chairman and CEO at BlackBerry.
“BlackBerry is beloved in Indonesia and its loyal fans have made it a popular smartphone brand. This is why we are so proud to be able to help bring BlackBerry even closer to Indonesia with a fantastic product that will be accessible to even more Indonesians.
This is only the beginning of what we know will be a long and fruitful partnership between Foxconn and BlackBerry,” said Terry Gou, founder and chairman, Foxconn.
[UPDATE]: BlackBerry has posted some specs of the Z3, so here it goes. The phone's 5-inch display supports qHD (540 x 960 pixels) resolution.
It comes equipped with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory. The smartphone also features dual cameras (5-megapixel main photo snapper and 1.1-megapixel front-facing camera).