BlackBerry looks to entice consumers with a bit of a perk for taking a chance on its square-faced Passport, which retails at roughly $50 cheaper than the iPhone 6 and Galaxy Note 4,
BlackBerry's newest, targeted entry into the smartphone market, the Passport, debuts with a $599 price tag and 4.5-inch, display. The squared display stands out in a sea of rectangular options that BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said caters more to entertainment than business.
The Passport's sights are set squarely on business users, who BlackBerry says won't miss much with the smartphone's deviation from the "entertainment driven" form factor that currently dominates the market.
"The BlackBerry Passport offers its size and aspect ratio to accommodate these characters, making it the ideal device for reading e-books, viewing documents and browsing the web," says BlackBerry. "No more worrying about portrait or landscape modes, and no; you aren't missing anything."
BlackBerry's strategy, as pieced together from Chen's spotty details, is to grow a loyal base of followers for its hardware division and to push its software all across the enterprise world.
"The reason why our focus is so enterprise is because what we know how to do is security and productivity," Chen says. "Security, cybersecurity, personal identity protection. This is going to be a big deal."
Backing up BlackBerry's aspirations to regain its footing, the Waterloo, Ontario, company purchased Movirtu. Movirtu's virtual SIM technologies serve as two SIM cards, automatically separating the voice and data usage of enterprise users to personal and business accounts where appropriate.
"The acquisition of Movirtu complements our core strategy of providing additional value-added services, and it will leverage our key assets, including our BES platform, along with our existing global infrastructure, which is connected to a large number of mobile operators around the world," said Chen.
While Asia, as in most of the world, spends the majority of its cash on Android or iOS devices, Chen said the region offers a "tremendous amount of opportunity."
With BlackBerry leaking financial losses as quickly as consumer faith, Chen stepped in as CEO in 2013 and has helped the company stitch together its wounds. With the restructuring and healing process all but complete, Chen says BlackBerry is about ready to move into the next phase of the plan he has envisioned for the company.
"Next year the focus has got to be on growth," Chen says. "Growth comes from vertical products. Better phones, newer technology."
