Dubai: BlackBerry will launch its new mid-range Qwerty smartphone – the Q5 – first in Dubai at its new branded retail concept store to be opened on Thursday.
The phone will be sold from 5pm for Dh1,499 with limited stock available for the opening day. It will be widely available next month at authorised retailers and carriers across the Middle East.
The 3.1-inch touch-screen device with a resolution of 720x720 pixels has a 2MP front camera and 5MP rear camera. 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, the 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 the Qwerty keyboard..
“We are expecting 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, Zimmermann said, the big question being whether Apple will be able to maintain its second rank behind Samsung. Since Apple has already shipped its latest model and with the Q10 having recently hit the market, it is likely Apple and BlackBerry will swap positions, she added.
