In an attempt to claw back its leadership position in the smartphone market, BlackBerry has launched the Z10 in India, nearly a month after its global launch.
With the launch of the smartphone, powered by its latest operating system BlackBerry 10 (BB10), the Canadian handset manufacturer intends to take on rivals such as Apple and Samsung. The Z10 is positioned as a high-end phone, with a price tag of Rs 43,490.
“India is the first country in Asia-Pacific to get the Z10, which shows the importance of the market. This is a youth-centric market, and we are opening with about 70,000 applications, of which 9,000 were developed in India,” Sunil Dutt, Managing Director for India at BlackBerry, said.
The phone, along with Q10 (another handset powered by BB10), was launched across select global markets such as Canada, the UK, Dubai and Paris on January 30. However, its launch in the US market has been delayed following regulatory approvals.
“The launch of new OS was necessary as the earlier version was not good for touch-screen operations. The positioning of the phone, which is presented at the high-end, is also right,” Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst with Gartner, said.
In the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple and Samsung together raised their worldwide smartphone market share to 52 per cent from 46.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2012. Samsung ended the year as the number one in both worldwide smartphone unit sales and overall mobile phone unit sales, according to a Gartner report.
“The launch is an attempt to regain the ground BlackBerry lost to rivals,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of SMC Global Securities.
The price of the handset is a bit above expectations, but that shouldn’t be a “deterrent” a Mumbai-based analyst said.
“I wouldn’t say, I am competing with anyone,” BlackBerry’s Dutt added.
Features: With features including an advanced predictive typing, Messenger with voice calling and Time Shift (an advanced camera feature), the Z10 supports eight Indian languages. Operators such as Idea Cellular, Aircel and Tata DoCoMo have also announced plans for the new phone.
BlackBerry would also launch an array of high-end phones on the BB10 platform in India, as and when they are launched across the world.