BlackBerry lowers Q5 QWERTY phone cost to Rs19,990
06 Jan 2014
BlackBerry today came out with a New Year offer for its low-cost BlackBerry 10 phone, under which, the Q5 QWERTY phone would be available for Rs19,990, PTI reports.
The phone which launched in July last year at Rs24,990 was on offer for different rates on different portal and retail outlets, the report added.
According to the company, the offer was "in line with BlackBerry's commitment towards the Indian market and would help the brand to reach out to more potential customers".
However, there had been reports that the company was struggling to sell stocks of its new smartphones.
According to Sameer Bhatia, director distribution for BlackBerry India, the New Year Bonanza aimed to provide a powerful mobile device, with cutting edge BlackBerry 10 OS at an affordable price point to the consumers.
Last month, the company had cut the price of its Q10 handset by over 13 per cent to Rs 38,990 under a similar offer (valid till 26 January) and followed it up in September, cutting the price of its Z10 smartphone by 31 per cent to Rs29,990.
The company also offered free and discounted apps for its BB10 operating system-run devices - Q5, Q10, Z10 and Z30 - in India.
Though the company has not disclosed the number of its users, according to sources 27-30 per cent of its sales in India was of devices powered by the BB10 platform.
In India, the four BB10-powered devices came with price tags ranging from Rs19,990 to Rs 39,990.
The Canadian firm had been facing stiff competition from other smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung, with its sales declining over the past few months globally.
Additionally, it was also considering apps, taking its popular messaging service BBM to other operating systems, to rake in additional revenue over the coming months.
The company had disclosed in a filing that mounting inventory had cost it about $1.6 billion in the third quarter, forcing it to cancel the launch of two new devices. It added, the pile up was mainly due to unsold BlackBerry 10 devices, which was launched in January last year with much fanfare.
