Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) today unveiled its latest range of BlackBerry 10 in India, with a price tag of 43,490 rupees ($800).
The BlackBerry Z10 will be available for sale in India from Tuesday, and will compete against other popular smartphone models like iPhones and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930)’s high-end Galaxy series phones.
The pricing of the new device puts it in a direct competition with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s 16GB iPhone5, which is priced at around Rs 45,000. However, it will be hard for the new Z10 to compete against the competitively priced Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) handsets. Nokia Lumia 920 is tagged at Rs. 38200, while SIII is selling at about Rs 30,000 for 16 GB.
“Although, the device is priced high, this positioning by BlackBerry was on expected lines. The operating systems looks good and has some excellent features,” Gartner Principal Research Analyst, Anshul Gupta, said.
The new device from Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) can be purchased from over 2,000 retail outlets across 50 cities in India, and will be available in White and Black. The Z10 will support 3G or HSPA+ networks, and also features support for global roaming. The new offering supports eight Indian languages — Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Devanagiri (Hindi), Gurmukhi (Punjabi), Gujarati, and Bengali in addition to third-party solutions for Indian language input.
The specifications for the new smartphone includes a 1.5 GHz dual core processor with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory (expandable upto 64GB). The device has a micro HDMI out port for presentations, and sensors, like NFC, supporting payments.
“Without a doubt the BlackBerry Z10 is among the most important and much awaited BlackBerry launches in the history of the Indian smartphone industry, and we are thrilled to launch the new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone with our carrier and retail partners across India.
“With BlackBerry 10, we have re-designed, re-engineered and re-invented BlackBerry to create a new and unique mobile computing experience, and we are uniquely positioned to change the way in which our customers view mobile technology. With BlackBerry 10, every feature, every gesture, and every detail is designed to keep you moving,” said Sunil Dutt, Managing Director for India at BlackBerry formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB).
Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s BB Z10 will be available in United States by mid-March. Currently, it is on sale in the United Kingdom and Canada.
