Dubai Developing Into A Vital Market For BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY)

BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is surely seeing Dubai as one of its most important markets, which is evident from the fact that the Canadian firm’s new smartphone Passport will be launched in three markets simultaneously of which Dubai is one.  In August, BlackBerry announced an alliance with UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) to support the mGovernment initiatives coming from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai.

BlackBerry supporting UAEs mGovernment initiatives

The initiatives aims at creating a ‘smart government’ by making the e-government services of the country available across mobile devices and is a part of UAE-wide effort. Mobile Centre of Excellence will be developed with the help of support and expertise provided by BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB).

The Passport is a square shaped device with a screen size of 4.5-inch. This handset has the ability of showing up as many as 60 characters per row, which is the maximum among the square shaped handsets. Besides this it boasts of numerous other features as well. Screen is 1440*1440 pixels with an innovative keyboard that is touch enable. This means that the user simply has to brush their hand on the keys and do not need to press for typing, which makes it more convenient and faster. The device comes with stereo speakers and four microphones. The device, powered with a 3450mAh battery, will be available in two colors – Black and White. This will make sure that all the functions of the device are performed with utmost perfection.

The ‘qwerty’ keyboard of the device is redesigned. The type ‘alphabets’ has been allotted three rows while the type ‘numbers’ has one row on the display.

Marketing campaign started

The new smartphone launch will be the same way as BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry Z10 devices were launched by the company. The event will be a global one with devices getting released in three major markets – Dubai, London and Toronto on September 24. While the details of release are not known much, but the media has been invited to attend the event.

Recently, a marketing campaign has been launched by BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) for its new device Passport in Canada. The ad is created using Canadian colors with the following text in big fonts: “Canadians Love A Great Comeback.” Many Canadian newspapers had this full-page ad run across Canada.