BlackBerry plans youth-devices in SL
View(s):Troubled Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry will soon introduce a youth-oriented plan for its devices in Sri Lanka, according to its Commercial Business Director for India, Hitesh Shah.
He also revealed that, in five to six months, there will be a number of other offerings made available, at different price points, to the local market. He further added that there were presently 120 developers in Sri Lanka adding applications (apps) to the BlackBerry World app store.
Speaking at this week’s Sri Lankan launch of the BlackBerry Q10, Mr. Shah also remarked that, over the first quarter of its current financial year, to end-May 2013, the manufacturer had shipped 6.8 million smartphones, while the company’s customer base comprised 72 million worldwide. Further, it has also emerged, by way of international media reports, that 2.7 million of these units were attributed to the Q10 and Z10, both launched globally at the beginning of this year. The Q10 is the company’s first 4G device in the local market, and is priced at Rs. 109,990,
However, it also must be noted that, according to media outlets such as UK’s Financial Times (FT), BlackBerry has also been shopping around for a buyer.
This follows significant setbacks that have seen the loss of US$ 78 billion of the company’s market value over the last five years (FT), with the market share of its key US market falling to less than 3 per cent currently, from over 50 per cent in 2009 (The Guardian).
(JH)
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