BlackBerry DTEK50 ‘Coming Soon’ To Wind Mobile

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BlackBerry’s DTEK 50, its second Android device, has been available unlocked through ShopBlackBerry for $429 for two weeks. Now it appears the Android phone could be making its way to carriers. Wind Mobile, a Canadian carrier, has now posted an update on its site that the DTEK50 is “coming soon,” reports Mobilesyrup.

BlackBerry DTEK50 coming soon to carriers

Just a few weeks ago, the Waterloo-based firm stated when it initially announced the mid-range Android-powered DTEK50 that at some point in the coming weeks, the handset would be available through Canadian carriers, including Wind Mobile, SaskTel, Rogers, Telus, Bell, and Videotron, says the report.

Now Wind Mobile has revealed that the DTEK50 is coming soon, but unfortunately there is no other solid information about the smartphone. Nothing is yet certain about the pricing or the release date for BlackBerry’s second Android device. What we do know for certain is that this smartphone is a security-focused mid-range handset.

The DTEK50 features a 5.2-inch 1920 x 1080 pixel display, 16GB of internal storage which is expandable to 2TB with a microSD card, a Snapdragon 617 processor, a 2610 mAh non-removable battery with Quick Charge 2.0, 3GB of RAM and Android 6.0.

In addition, the DTEK50 packs a 13-megapixel auto-focus camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. This mid-range, security-focused Android device is also the thinnest smartphone ever created by the Canadian firm.

BlackBerry, Windows market share hardly noticeable

The most popular smartphone OS worldwide is Android, whereas iOS comes in second. As for the operating systems from older companies like BlackBerry and Microsoft, the market share is hardly noticeable, according to the latest figures from Gartner.

For BlackBerry, smartphone sales dropped to only 400,000 during Q2 2016 from 1.1 million units in Q2 2015, whereas Microsoft sold only 1.9 million handsets during Q2 2016. Last year in the same quarter, Microsoft managed to sell 8.2 million units. BlackBerry and Microsoft collected 0.1% and 0.6% of the smartphone market respectively. In comparison, Android’s market share was 86.2%, while for iOS, it was 12.95%.

Despite such dismal performances, BlackBerry and Microsoft are not backing down or leaving the smartphone market. BlackBerry with its recently-launched DTEK50 (and two more devices in the pipeline) hopes to win a respectable market share.

On Monday, BlackBerry shares closed down 0.12% at $8.02. Year to date, the stock is down more than 14%, while in the last year, it is up more than 12%.

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