BlackBerry appears poised to move away from its signature keyboard-equipped smartphones and could be moving towards a line of all-touchscreen devices. A report this afternoon by CNet suggests that BlackBerry is following up its Z10 smartphone with the BlackBerry A10 to be launched on Sprint Nextel in November with the BlackBerry 10 OS on board.
The new BlackBerry handset will, unintentionally or not, create an distinct hierarchy of of BlackBerry devices with the A10 sitting atop the chain followed by mid-tier devices like the Z10 and QWERTY keypadded Q10, and followed up by the most affordable Q5
Sprint has already staked a claim to carrying the next-generation BlackBerry device though its supposedly not exclusive which wouldn’t be a surprise seeing as how both T-Mobile and AT&T launched the BlackBerry Q10 today on their respective services. According to the CNet report, Spring will launch the A10 in November after foregoing the chance to carry the Z10 after anticipating the A10 on the horizon.
As far as technical specs are concerned, very little is known of the device other than the fact that it will operate on BlackBerry’s mobile OS BlackBerry 10. The Z10 sports a decent 4.2-inch 1280 x 768 display and dual-core processor which means, being the successor of the device, the A10 will likely take cues from along those lines.
BlackBerry 10 is key for the A10. The company is trying hard to push its Q10 by playing up the convenience and authenticity of its QWERTY keyboard, but BlackBerry as a whole has been on a slippery financial slope in recent years. Perhaps it has more to do with the fact that its essentially playing catch up with its technology, something that it could very well have achieved with the real-time updates, easy slide features, and multitasking gesture integration. Moving all of this onto a touch screen is a move in the right direction for BlackBerry.
The Verge also reminds us in a similar article that “BlackBerry has previously said to expect at least six devices during 2013; we’ve currently seen three at the high and low end of the market.” This means that BlackBerry has the opportunity to build off the possible success of either the A10 or Q10, depending on how and which customers take to their individual hardware (touchscreen vs. keyboard) and set the market price accordingly.
With BlackBerry 10 running under the hood, BlackBerry has a chance to really take a bite out of the huge market share controlled by Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and Apple’s iPhone 5. Both Android and iOS and the two aforementioned phones they run on dominate their respective realms with the likes of LG, HTC, Nokia, and of course BlackBerry nipping at their heels.
Stay tuned to BostInno for the latest on BlackBerry and the new A10. In the meantime, let us know what you think. Is BlackBerry moving in the right direction by opting for a touchscreen rather than a keyboard? Will it be able to achieve the popularity that it once boasted years ago?
