BlackBerry banks on QWERTY smartphones, lines up Passport and Classic for India

BlackBerry is back to its QWERTY formula that made the brand a success, and plans to launch its new Passport and Classic smartphones in India within the next few months. Apart from revealing this, the company has also announced its intention to keep its physical stores open instead of moving sales purely to the online medium.

Starting with the Passport handset, its interface does not stick to the whole BlackBerry format of a QWERTY keyboard paired with a trackpad. It adopts a 4.5-inch square touchscreen and a plain old physical QWERTY layout instead. The last mentioned is also built to support personalized commands by users.

The name of the odd-looking phone is inspired from, you guessed it right, the traveler’s passport which the company describes as a ‘universal symbol of mobility.’ It will be rolled out in two color options of black and white. Not much about the BlackBery Q20 has been unveiled so far, but we do know that it will be made out of premium materials.

BlackBerry Passport key specs list:

- 4.5-inch 1440 x 1440p IPS screen
- Quad core 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor
- Adreno 330 graphics
- BlackBerry 10.3 OS
- 3GB RAM, 32GB ROM, 64GB expandability
- 13MP camera with flash
- 2MP front-facing lens
- 4G, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS
- 3450mAh non-removable Li-ion battery

As for the BlackBerry Classic, you get a 3.2-inch 1440 x 1440p capacitive display, 2GB RAM, 64GB microSD card support and a 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm chip. This smartphone runs on the same OS as its awkwardly shaped companion and was previously revealed as the Q20. The company maintains that users feel the hard buttons and trackpad are typical of the QWERTY experience provided by the brand, which explains the renaming.

There’s no word on pricing or exact release dates with regards to the roll-out of the BlackBerry Passport and Classic in India, but we’ll keep you updated as soon as we hear anything.

IRCTC brings ticket booking app to BlackBerry World

Available now on the BlackBerry World is the IRCTC ticketing app which will allow BB loyalists to ensure that their tickets are booked right through their smartphones. It’s only meant for BB 10 devices at the moment, and can be downloaded free of cost of course.

Describing it as an ‘easy and streamlined train booking service,’ Annie Mathew, who’s the director of the business development and alliance over at BlackBerry India has asserted that the company is ‘excited’ to bring the IRCTC app to BB World. ‘Increasing smartphone perpetration and the increasing dependence on mobile applications,’ is what has propelled the Indian body to release this product, according to her.

Apart from booking tickets, you can make use of the app for other important tasks as well, thus enhancing your travelling experience further. For instance, if you’ve booked a waitlisted ticket, your reservation status will be accessible from right inside the application, whereas the schedules and routes of trains will also be available.

And that’s not all, using the IRCTC app on your BlackBerry devices you can check the availability of tickets for a particular train or journey whenever you wish to. Other traits that form part of its offerings include the ability to cancel tickets, view stuff like booking history, recent history, favorites and the facility to add passengers as contacts.

Like we said, the IRCTC app is live now on the BlackBerry World storefront as a free download. The app is already available through the Windows Phone Store since late last year.

BlackBerry to turn back to QWERTY, set to launch Passport, Classic in India

Faced with the onslaught of cheap Android phones, BlackBerry is turning back to its core, the popular QWERTY keyboards. In the coming months, BlackBerry will launch in India the Passport and Classic, two devices that will have the QWERTY keyboard at its USP.

"QWERTY has been one of our strong suits, keeping with the consumer trend and demand, we will continue to launch devices based on QWERTY. There remains a large portion of the user base that are loyal to the QWERTY experience," said Sameer Bhatia, Director, Distribution at BlackBerry India.

The unique BlackBerry Passport will offer a 4.5-inch square full HD screen with with a touch-enabled keyboard. "You will be able to navigate web pages, apps and e-mails by lightly brushing your fingers over the keys, which helps with things like scrolling and cursor placement," he said, adding that the keyboard will also support custom commands.

The BlackBerry Classic, meanwhile, will bring back the trackpad and function keys to BlackBerry 10 devices. It will be second device to come out of the Foxconn partnership and could have an affordable price tag.

"We believe that our devices need to stay in step with the times while ensuring to provide die-hard BlackBerry users with the comfort of a keypad as well," said Bhatia.

However, BlackBerry is unlikely to shift to an online only approach like some of the new entrants in the market. "We believe that both traditional retail formats outlets and online platforms are complementary strategies that brands need to harness to ensure complete consumer access and reach," he said. Bhatia said it is imperative to look at OMNI channel presence and leverage both traditional as well as new age formats to reach out to consumers across segments. "Recently with the launch of the new BlackBerry Z3 we partnered with both The Mobile Store and Flipkart to offer consumers an exciting pre-launch offer. The offer was very well received by the consumers, proving that both brick & mortar and online formats have become an integral part of a brand’s retail strategy."