Close X
Friday, November 22, 2024
ADVT 
National

BlackBerry Sales Exec Tells BBC: There Will Be A New Keyboard Model Within 6 Months

Darpan News Desk IANS, 06 Oct, 2016 11:51 AM
    TORONTO — One of BlackBerry's top sales executives says the company will release a new smartphone with its distinctive physical keyboard within six months.
     
    The comment was made in a BBC video interview published Wednesday, a week after the Canadian smartphone pioneer announced it would stop doing hardware development in-house.
     
    Instead, it said it would rely on partners to produce BlackBerry devices.
     
    It's been an open secret that BlackBerry has at least one more smartphone with a keyboard that hasn't been released. 
     
    But chairman and CEO John Chen said last week that he hadn't decided whether it would be brought to market.
     
    The company's senior vice-president for global device sales, Alex Thurber, was less vague in his interview with BBC.
     
    "There will still be a keyboard-based BlackBerry device, designed and distributed within the next six months," he said.
     
    Thurber said that the keyboards set BlackBerrys apart from market-leading Apple and Samsung smartphones that feature touch screens.
     
    "I think there's a demand for keyboard phones. As we've been showing mockups of what we've been working on, to our carrier and distributor partners, they are very excited about this," Thurber said in the three-minute video.
     
    He addressed confusion about whether BlackBerry smartphones will disappear or continue to be available after in-house design and development ceases by the end of the company's 2017 financial year on Feb. 28.
     
    "We'll now be working with partners to take our software onto their hardware. So there will continue to be BlackBerry-branded devices for sale all over the world," Thurber said.
     
    The only such partnership announced is with a joint venture company that will primarily make BlackBerrys for the Indonesian market.
     
    The keyboard phone is expected to be a DTEK model. The first DTEK — a touch-screen device using a BlackBerry version of the Android operating system — began shipping in August.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Calgary's Varun Aurora Found Guilty Of Role In $23 Million Fraud But Not Going To Jail

    Calgary's Varun Aurora Found Guilty Of Role In $23 Million Fraud But Not Going To Jail
    He has been sentenced to two years less a day, to be served in the community.

    Calgary's Varun Aurora Found Guilty Of Role In $23 Million Fraud But Not Going To Jail

    Woman's Body Found In Burnaby B.C., Homicide Team Investigating

    Police say they are investigating a homicide in Burnaby, B.C.

    Woman's Body Found In Burnaby B.C., Homicide Team Investigating

    Elderly Woman Found Dead In Calgary Home, Police Charge 85-Yr-Old Husband With Murder

    Elderly Woman Found Dead In Calgary Home, Police Charge 85-Yr-Old Husband With Murder
    An 85-year-old Calgary man has been charged with second-degree murder after his wife was found dead early Tuesday. Insp. Don Coleman says police got a 911 call from the victim's husband.

    Elderly Woman Found Dead In Calgary Home, Police Charge 85-Yr-Old Husband With Murder

    Japan Denies Being 'Black Hole' For Children Abducted By Estranged Parent

    Japan Denies Being 'Black Hole' For Children Abducted By Estranged Parent
    In a statement, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its top priority is to protect the interests of the children involved in such disputes.

    Japan Denies Being 'Black Hole' For Children Abducted By Estranged Parent

    Calgary Man, 85, Charged In Wife's Death Likely To Have Dementia

    Calgary Man, 85, Charged In Wife's Death Likely To Have Dementia
    CALGARY — Loved ones say a 85-year-old Calgary man accused of murdering his 80-year-old wife had been suffering from dementia for years.

    Calgary Man, 85, Charged In Wife's Death Likely To Have Dementia

    N.S. Intimate-Image Case A Cautionary Tale For Young People, Prosecutor Says

    N.S. Intimate-Image Case A Cautionary Tale For Young People, Prosecutor Says
    BRIDGEWATER, N.S. — The high-profile trial of six Nova Scotia teens charged with sharing intimate images of at least 20 high school girls should serve as a cautionary tale for other young people, a prosecutor says.

    N.S. Intimate-Image Case A Cautionary Tale For Young People, Prosecutor Says