Blackberry announced its latest crack at an all-screen smartphone during the GITEX Technology Week in Dubai on Sunday. The Motion is the company's third Android phone to ditch the keyboard following the release of the DTEK50 and DTEK60 in 2016. Blackberry also released the KEYone earlier this year, but that device includes a keyboard below the touchscreen.
The Motion's 5.5-inch LCD display and Snapdragon 625 system-on-a-chip is powered by a large 4,000mAh battery (the iPhone 8 Plus has a 2,675mAh battery), which Blackberry hopes will appeal to business users looking for all-day battery life. Like all of the company's branded handsets these days, the Motion is actually made by Chinese company TCL Communication.
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The phone will be initially available in Middle Eastern markets for approximately $460, with availability in the U.S. likely further down the line.
Blackberry officially discontinued its keyboard-rocking Blackberry Classic in July 2016 and later declared it would cease internally developing its own handsets, relying on partnerships with other companies instead while it focuses on software development.
The rise of the iPhone famously wiped out Blackberry's smartphone market share, but the company's pivot towards mobile security has been a profitable one, with its recent quarterly earnings report exceeding expectations.
The company reported record gross margins of 76 percent, up from 67 percent last quarter and 62 percent a year ago, despite the fact its hardware market share remains essentially zero.
Top Rated Comments
They need to keep doing what they're doing. They don't give a crap about phones. They're just licensing the name and getting paid. Blackberry is a software company now. Plain and simple. They did $249M Q2. $196M of that was software and services.
The company reported record gross margins of 76 percent, up from 67 percent last quarter and 62 percent a year ago, despite the fact its hardware market share remains essentially zero.