Wednesday, Jun 19, 2013
Dubai: BlackBerry will launch its new mid-range Qwerty smartphone - Q5 - first in Dubai at its new branded retail concept store to be opened on Thursday.
The phone will be sold from 5pm for Dh1499 and only limited stocks available for the opening day. The phone will be widely available next month from authorised retailer and carriers across the Middle East.
The 3.1-inch touch-screen device with a resolution of 720 x 720 pixels has a 2MP front camera and 5MP rear camera while it houses 2GB RAM and 8GB of storage capacity.
BlackBerry officials were not available for comment.
According to Annette Zimmermann, Principal Analyst at Gartner Deutschland GmbH, BlackBerry’s Z10 did not really push up the volume for BlackBerry in the Middle East and Africa but Q10 is expected to help the company push up sales from die-hard fans in the second quarter because of Qwerty keyboard..
“We are expected to see encouraging sales from BlackBerry in the second quarter,” she told Gulf News.
BlackBerry sold 1.15 million smartphones in the Middle East and Africa in the first quarter with a market share of 10 per cent.
The second quarter is going to be interesting, she said, and the big question is whether Apple will be able to maintain its second rank as in first quarter. Since Apple has already shipped its model in the first quarter and Q10 hitting the markets, it is most likely that Apple and BlackBerry will swap positions.
By Naushad K.?Cherrayil Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
