BlackBerry announces new handset
BlackBerry has announced its largest smartphone to date, with the company desperate to recoup some of the market following the news that it will be making 40% of its workforce redundant.
The new handset, which is called the Z30, will feature a five-inch Super Amoled display and a large battery, which the company has said should last for more than two days between full charges.
The Z30 is the first product to be released by BlackBerry since last month’s announcement by the Canadian company that it was seriously considering putting itself up for sale.
In light of the latest announcement, some analysts have voiced the possibility that the new hardware might be seen by potential investors as a negative, and that they might wish to carry out a deal under the terms of which the new hardware was not acquired.
Colin Gills, director of research at investment advisers BGC Financial, said: “Android is clearly number one, Apple’s iOS is number two, and now Windows Phone is number three. BlackBerry’s hardware and operating system themselves are fine, but there’s not much more beyond that – it’s not a meaningful platform.”
According to the latest statistic, BlackBerry accounted for 9.3% of all handsets shipped to the UK during the first six months of the year, largely due to the interest that was generated by the launch of the new BB10 operating system.
In other countries, however, BlackBerry’s position is weaker, with the company only accounting for 1.7% of smartphones shipped to the US and only 0.1% of those sent to China. These two markets are the world’s largest.