The
4.5” Blackberry Passport Launched on Wednesday September 24th 2014 simultaneously
in Toronto, London and Dubai as I’d
stated earlier in my blog article entitled
“Blackberry
Passport to launch Wednesday September 24th 2014 - 5.5-inch Apple iPhone 6 Plus
proves Phablets a Trend and Passport a success”.
Up
until that point I’d expected a smartphone priced at US$770 with the squarish
specs and the swipable physical keyboard as I’d revealed in my blog article
entitled “US$720
Blackberry Passport Specs Revealed – Metallic Accent with Big Battery makes
this Hip to Be Square Phablet Trend a Winner”.
So
it came as a surprise that Blackberry is dropping the price for the unlocked
Blackberry Passport from the lofty high of US$770 unlocked to a very
competitive US$599 (£366) as reported in the article “BlackBerry
Unveils Its Passport Smartphone”, published Sept. 24, 2014 6:40 p.m. ET, by
BEN DUMMETT, The Walls Street Journal and “BlackBerry
unveils Passport smartphone, available today”, published September 24, 2014
7:00 AM PDT by Roger Cheng, CNET News.
US$500 Blackberry
Passport - Lower Price makes it competitive against the Apple iPhone 6
Blackberry
is clearly on a recovery path as per the comments by an upbeat Blackberry CEO
John Chen during the Launch as reflected in the article “BlackBerry
narrows loss, sees turnaround progress”, published Friday, September 26,
2014 2:56 PM, The Jamaica Observer.
Blackberry’s
aim is to sell some 10 million units for the year in order to make profit,
roughly the same number of Apple iPhone 6's that apple sold on Friday September
19th 2014 and over the weekend from Saturday September 20th
2014 to Sunday September 21st 2014 as stated in the article “Apple
sells 10M iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices in first weekend”, published
September 22, 2014 5:33 AM PDT by Shara Tibken, CNET
News.
If
they manage that, it would be a marked improvement over the 2.6 million the
sold in the Fiscal Quarter ending May 2014. They're also a little on the
ambitious side, gunning for some 30% of the American market that likes to buy
unlocked smartphones.
That
is, ever since President Barack Obama signed the “Unlocking Consumer Choice and
Wireless Competition Act” (S.517) on Friday August 1st 2014 as
stated in my blog
article entitled “Unlocking
Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act makes Cellphone Unlocking Legal
again - President Barack Obama upholds DMCA”.
They’ll
achieve this by pricing their Blackberry Passport at US$500 unlocked, which is
way below the US$649 for the unlocked Apple iPhone 6 and the US$749 unlocked
Apple iPhone 6 Plus as stated in my blog article
entitled “Apple
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus - No Sapphire Screen but 128GB Storage and
NFC-powered Apple Pay in Apple's Biggest iPhone Launch”.
A
small victory for Blackberry in the US of A! Not so sure if it’ll make a
difference in Britain, where analyst eMarketer has projected that Blackberry
smartphone overall will be 3rd place in the British Market as
explained in my blog
article entitled “Blackberry
3rd in Britain by End of 2014 – Blackberry loses in Apple, Android fight as
Blackberry Passport to launch in September 2014”.
Clearly,
despite the competition from other popular Google Android smartphones, they
have the Apple iPhone in their sights as alluded in the article “BlackBerry
Passport Price and Launch Date Revealed: Costs Less than Rival Smartphones”,
published September 23, 2014 10:52 BST by Sarmistha Acharya, IBTimes.
Blackberry Passport
unique Features – Apple Pay vs Blackberry Blend Remote Access
In
the US of A, the lack of a Mobile Wallet payment system equivalent to Apple Pay
might hurt its chances at mass adoption, as Apple Pay look to become the
defining moment for NFC based Mobile Payments as stated in “Apple
takes NFC Mainstream on iPhone 6: Apple Watch with Apple Pay”, published
September 9, 2014 11:02 AM PDT, by Marguerite Reardon and Shara Tibken, CNET News.
However,
Apple Pay currently works in the US of A only and is restricted to select
number of partners who’ve chosen to sign up to their System. Thus for
Developing world countries such as Jamaica, features and price count and the
too-large-to-fit-in-my-back-pocket Blackberry Passport may soon be launched in
Jamaica on either Telecom Provider Digicel or Telecom Provider LIME's Networks.
Features
that will make it beloved by the Corporate and Enterprise world would be things
like Microsoft Office native to the Passport as argued in my blog article
entitled “Blackberry
Passport Specs revealed in Hands-on - Why Microsoft Office and BBM Music will
make the Passport Hip to Be Square”.
From September 1, 2014 |
The
Blackberry Passport, however, is still a team player. Their most unique
Feature, Blackberry Blend, allows you to read emails from the Passport on other
devices, including other rival smartphones and Tablets including the Apple iPhone
and the Apple iPad as stated in “Blackberry
Blend shares data among multiple devices”, published September 24, 2014
7:00 AM PDT by Roger Cheng, CNET News.
This
feature also comes with Remote Access form a Laptop or Desktop computer, Apple
Macbook Pro or iMac once the Blackberry Passport is connected to Wi-Fi, 4G LTE
or USB Cable.
Clever
idea, considering that Remote Access to smartphones is usually provided by a
third-party software, such as SplashTop’s
Mirroring360 and Squirrel’s
Reflector for Apple iPhones and Google
Chrome Remote Desktop for Google Android smartphones as explained my blog article
entitled “SplashTop’s
Mirroring360 and Squirrel’s Reflector lets you mirror your Apple iPhone, iPad
or iPod Nano to your Desktop or Laptop”.
Apple iPhone in
Blackberry’s sights – Apple iPhone 6’s Apple Pay advantage as 30 more countries
coming
Availability
might be an issues with the competitively priced US$500 Blackberry Passport.
They plan to sell it only through AT&T Wireless at an unconfirmed date and
pre-orders have already begun via their website and Amazon in the U.S., U.K.,
Canada, France and Germany. 30 more countries, possibly including Jamaica, may
be added to the list of countries that might take some interest in buying this
squarish phablet with the swipable keys.
Possibly
and definitely including India and China, Developing Countries they’re already
reaping success with the Blackberry Z3 as explained in my blog article
entitled “Blackberry
blogs positive reviews of Passport as Z3 sells out in India - Blackberry Passport
may be their ticket on the Indian Express”.
Hopefully,
the Blackberry Classic, which Blackberry CEO John Chen alluded, would be coming
in November 2014, will be a lot more popular and a little more affordable! So
is Blackberry on the comeback trail? Yes, but just don't expect crowds of people
buying this device, despite being hip to be square getting a little more price-competitive!
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