BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is showing off its latest smartphone the Blackberry Passport. The device has tech writers everywhere scrabbling for description, and for use cases. The device won’t officially launch until September this year, so it’s difficult to predict what should be expected. One thing is for sure, the Blackberry Passport is weird, and it’s about time we started celebrating weird smart phones.
The iPhone had such a major impact on the smart phone world that very little has been able to break the mold. OEM after OEM is producing black rectangles. The days of a full QWERTY keyboard or anything so deviant appeared to be gone. BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) itself released an ill fated black rectangle last year in the Blackberry Z10. The Blackberry Passport may break the mold in some kind of niche, and
Three reasons you want the Blackberry Passport
If any of the following applies to you, the BlackBerry Passport may be just the phone to alleviate your frustration:
1. You find yourself running to a computer screen or tablet everytime you have any real work to do.
2. You spend three times as long typing an email on your iPhone as you would on you computer
3. Security is still a priority, no matter how many fingerprint scanners Apple sells
The physical keyboard of the BlackBerry Passport, assuming it maintains the quality of previous BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) models like the Q10 and the Bold, will allow users to actually write emails. The 4.5 inch screen will not be obstructed by a touch keyboard, and autocorrect won’t have the ability to guess which key you meant to press, or which you might go for next.
The screen will allow users to look at images of an unusual size, and, though everyone is still skeptical, a spreadsheet may be, for the first time ever, actually usable on a smartphone. BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is still the gold standard in mobile security and those using the company’s enterprise systems are usually the most supportive of the company’s future.
BlackBerry Passport looks for a weakness
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) was once at the center of the smartphone world, and the company’s QWERTY keyboard phones were a sought after design close to a decade ago. BlackBerry as a company clearly doesn’t believe in the shiny black facade of the current smartphone market. The company is looking for a weakness in which to build its niche. It may have found it with the BlackBerry Passport.
The BlackBerry Passport isn’t a cure all, but it doesn’t have to be. The point of the device is that different people have different needs.The BlackBerry Passport may serve the uses of some people who actually want to get work done on their phone. It’s not a threat to the iPhone, but it may be an odd device some people pull out on a train. Smartphones my be getting weird, and that’s worth celebrating, at least for the break in monotony.
