BlackBerry is heading to Jakarta, Indonesia for its latest smartphone release in an effort to rebound from years of decline. With Jakarta being the world's most active social media city, the move aims to jumpstart the company after it has seen its US and European sales drop dramatically and force the company to reexamine their strategy.
The Z3 Jakarta Edition will begin selling in Indonesia on May 15. BlackBerry is hoping that Indonesia, a country where the maker has seen strong sales despite global pitfalls, will help the company recover in 2014 from years of downturn.
The company made the announcement and hopes that it will target users who already use BlackBerry phones and want the latest technology from the Canadian company.
"This device gives users more ways to connect, share and communicate, providing the best tool for secure, reliable communications and collaboration with friends, family, and co-workers," BlackBerry CEO John Chen said in a statement.
The company is also launching a promotional limited edition model that features an inscription of "Jakarta" on the back as part of the company's commemoration of the launch for a phone designed and marketed specifically for Indonesia.
The phone is a five inch model that has a battery life of up to 15 and a half hour of talking time plus a touch screen keyboard specifically for the Bahasa language of the Southeast Asian country. Users can switch between English and Bahasa Indonesia with ease as the predictive text will have both languages in use.
While targeting Indonesia first, the company also says it will push out the smartphone in a number of other countries in the region, including Malaysia, Vietnam, India and the Philippines.
The move is part of BlackBerry's continued efforts to engage the mobile phone market, which it had once been seen as a leader as all American government officials were using the BlackBerry, but today, after years of falling, the company is on the outs of the global smartphone market and needs a new in road back into the game.
This is seen as the company's best hopes to reenergize its base and create buzz for its phones in a region where they are still sought after. The last BlackBerry released on the market received positive reviews from a number of industry experts, but it failed to garner the attention of the general population as sales were well short of expectations.
