BlackBerry sure is an interesting company. This Canada-based tech giant was once one of the most prominent mobile device manufacturers in the world. The BlackBerry handsets were well-known for quality, but also high pricing range. BlackBerry failed to adapt to the smartphone market, they were too late to release the BB10 OS, and have ultimately opted to switch to Android by releasing the BlackBerry Priv last year. The Priv got mixed reviews, and the sales weren’t all that great, not only because of the mixed reviews part, but also because of the phone’s price.
Well, it seems like BlackBerry has no intention of giving up anytime soon, two of their devices leaked recently, and the company’s CEO has confirmed that the company plans to release exactly two smartphones before the end of the company’s fiscal year. Mr. John Chen was interviewed by CNBC and Bloomberg recently, and has said that two BlackBerry smartphones are coming later this (fiscal) year, he did not, however, specify when exactly. For those of you who don’t know, BlackBerry’s fiscal years ends on February 28th 2017, so it could be a while before these two phones become a reality. Now, in addition to this, he also added that the company is close to making a profit from their hardware business by saying the following: “I think the key is could I get the business to make money, and I’m very close. I truly believe we’re going to be in the phone business, and a profitable one”. Now, regarding the two aforementioned smartphones, Mr. Chen revealed that one of them will feature a physical keyboard, while the other one will launch without one.
Most of you are probably wondering whether this will be entry-level, mid-range or high-end devices? Well, it seems like we’re looking at two mid-range phones, at least according to Mr. Chen’s statement from last month when he said that the company is working on two new mid-range devices. In addition to that, a rumor surfaced back in March saying that Blackberry Hamburg and Rome are underway, which are probably codenames for the two upcoming devices.