BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) said Tuesday that they have plans of releasing four new devices in the year 2015. One of those is a touch-screen device, and was unveiled by the Canadian firm yesterday. The company is working on turning around for the past one year under the leadership of the CEO John Chen.
Leap different from Passport, Classic
The next device from the company is named Leap, and will be available in some of the countries at a retail price of $275 starting next month. The five-inch device is the third device introduced by the company since September 2014. BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is targeting the professionals with these devices, and Leap follows the trend set by Classic and Passport, and has been priced reasonably. The new device will focus on young professionals as these people are accustomed to using touch screen device even at their work place.
“BlackBerry Leap was built specifically for mobile professionals who see their smartphone device as a powerful and durable productivity tool that also safeguards sensitive communications at all times,” Ron Louks, the company’s head of devices, said.
Passport and Classic; previous two devices targeted at professionals had different set of features. While Passport is a square-shaped device with a 4.5-inch screen for easy reading and manipulating of documents, Classic comes with a QWERTY keyboard and track pad, which are an adaption from BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s popular device Bold.
BlackBerry devising a comeback
Canadian company, which was once the market leader, has seen the sales of its smartphones dwindle in the past few. Therefore, the company has now shifted its focus towards selling mobile security software to enterprises.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) made an attempt for a comeback in the smartphone business in 2013, but the major rivals Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung had grown so much in size and popularity by then that it was not possible for BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) to compete with them. Hence, it shifted its focus on selling security and software technology, and on creating devices for the corporate and governments. Also, the company is following a cross-platform strategy, offering mobile device management software and other technology that can work on other major platforms such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft Corporation’s Windows operating system.
