Porsche P’9983 Unveiled: Will It Help BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY)

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) and Porsche Design have been coming up with premium handsets, and the latest offering from them is the new P’9983 device, which was unveiled at an event in Dubai. This device was very much hyped and the details that were leaked have proved to be true like every time in the past. The device is everything it promises to be.

Price still a secret

The new premium P’9983 smartphone runs on the BlackBerry 10.3 OS. It also boasts of some features typical of Porsche such as custom wallpaper and watchface. The device is different from other BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) devices, and besides BBM there is a distinctive sense of style that the prospective buyers are going to love and flaunt proudly.

The design is very different from the BlackBerry Q10, and is different in appearance from the other smartphones that are mostly curved. The device boasts of angular and brutish look, and with these looks the users also get an added advantage of a physical ‘QWERTY’ keyboard with ‘glass-like’ looks. The device comes with a 64GB internal storage and a 3.1-inch touchscreen.

The new Porsche has a sapphire glass covering the camera lens. The Porsche design logo and chassis are made with forged stainless steel. The exact pricing of P’9983 is not revealed by BlackBerry, but with the previous devices costing more than $2,000 during the launch it can be said that this too will cost few thousand dollars.

BlackBerry targets a niche with P’9983

The luxury brands have high demand in the cities such as Dubai, Hong Kong and London. Keeping this in view the new BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) device is planned for launch in these cities first with Dubai already getting the device, and the other two cities will also get the device in coming few days. The devices are priced quite heavily and these make it a far-fetched dream for many.

BlackBerry is looking to turn its fortunes under the leadership of its CEO John Chen, who is aiming at the enterprise customers and this device is consistent with this strategy.

“It’s not for the mass market, but chances are buyers of the devices will own their own business and BlackBerry is focused on selling its smartphones as a business tool.” said Ramon Llamas, an analyst at International Data Corp., a technology research firm. The Canadian firms aims to dominate the enterprise market, and the Porsche design will try to capture a niche within that market, note Llamas.