BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) would rollover a phone specifically targeting the business and enterprise users for the first time. The phone dubbed as Passport would be entirely unique in form factor, according to a report from Emirates247 by Joseph George. As of now, only the prototype of the phone has been leaked, and the actual phone could differ marginally.
Passport specifications
Several reports suggest that BlackBerry has started testing the devices, and a Canadian Journalist posted an image of BlackBerry CEO John Chen holding the device. Various other reports and pictures of the phone leaked from reported websites such as CrackBerry.
As per some reports, the phone would be launched in September 2014, around the launch date of the iPhone 6. BlackBerry Passport would be square in shape with 4.5 inch display, resolution of 1440×1440, a 3GB RAM and 32 GB internal memory with an additional slot for storage expansion. The name has been assigned because of its size with 1:1 aspect ratio.
Passport would reportedly have micro-Sim slot that will be placed on the top of the device along with the memory card slot. The phone appears to sport an 8MP front camera and a 13 MP rear camera along with 3450 mAh battery that will run the phone for over 18 hours.
BlackBerry CEO believe customers want new
BlackBerry Blast, the tech blog uploaded a video showing CEO John Chen explaining the reasons for making such a phone. Chen explains, in the video, that customers are done with the mega-sized phones that grow on just one side.
“A lot of old phones including some of ours is on one side longer than the other side. You look at our competitor phones and they get bigger and longer and wider.” Chen said that most of the people are tired with the longer and the wider design.
Passport’s unique keypad
Passport has a unique QWERTY keypad, which has just English alphabets on it without any symbols. Also, the device would have a contextual virtual key board that changes according to the context.
For instance, if a user enters a password, keyboard with numbers and symbols will appear, if an email is entered, @ symbol will appear. Upon opening a browser, keyboard with colon and backslash characters will appear. Upon swiping down, user will get a complete keyboard. The phone is just the broader version of the BlackBerry Q10, but without curved edges and more pointed corners.
Going by the Blast video, CEO Chen surely supports the device, but whether it will be able to help BlackBerry to regain some of lost glory remains to be seen.
