BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) today announced that its BlackBerry Z3 smartphone will launch in the Middle East. The Z3 smartphone is expected to be available in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in July and then Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait later on in the summer.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) said that the BlackBerry Z3 smartphone can be pre-ordered today in UAE through the BlackBerry Store in the Dubai Mall.
The BlackBerry Z3 will run on the 10 OS platform version 10.2.1 and is Android app compatible and will sport a Capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 540 x 960 pixels, 5.0 inches display. It will also have 8 GB internal RAM and up to 32 GB microSD. The new Z3 smartphone will feature a Dual-core 1.2 GHz Krait 200 processor and what BlackBerry called “exceptional battery life” up to 15 hours talk time.
The new smartphone will also have BlackBerry features such as BlackBerry hub, BBM, BlackBerry Keyboard, Time Shift & Story Maker, BlackBerry 10 Browser and other BlackBerry standard features.
Launching in India
The Canadian smartphone manufacturer seems very keen on gaining back market share lost to rivals like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics said it will launch its new BlackBerry Z3 in India starting July 3rd at a price of 15,990 rupees ($266).
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) in May, launched the BlackBerry Z3 Jakarta edition in Indonesia for about $200 to lure customers in emerging markets.
“BlackBerry has changed the way millions of people around the world stay connected. From conception to delivery, the BlackBerry Z3, Jakarta Edition was designed specifically with our Indonesian customers in mind. This device gives users more ways to connect, share and communicate, providing the best tool for secure, reliable communications and collaboration with friends, family and co-workers. Priced affordably, the BlackBerry Z3, Jakarta Edition will extend the full capabilities of the BlackBerry 10 Operating System version 10.2.1 experience for a new generation of customers in Indonesia.” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO, BlackBerry.
Indonesia used to be called the “BlackBerry Nation” and BlackBerry had more than 40% of Indonesian market share, but with the launch of the expensive BlackBerry Z10, market share dipped down to about 4%. BlackBerry hopes the Z3 that is competitively priced will help gain some lost market share in emerging markets such as Indonesia and India where the competition is fierce from external and local rivals alike.
Blackberry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) shares today were up 1.42% closing at $9.98 and after hours trading 20% at $10.00 a share.
 said that the BlackBerry Z3 smartphone can be pre-ordered today in UAE through the BlackBerry Store in the Dubai Mall.){kind=link}