Blackberry Launches New Smartphone in US

The new Blackberry 10 platform is seen as the Canadian firm's last opportunity to regain ground in a market dominated by Google's Android and Apple's iOS operating systems.
  • The touch-screen Z10 has already been launched in other markets
  • The new device has received generally positive reviews
  • BlackBerry said this week that it has 100,000 apps for the BB10 platform

Upgrades to Spur Demand

Richard Anthony at BGC Financial said there will be initial demand from some of the 79 million BlackBerry customers worldwide seeking to upgrade.

"However, the initial demand may wane as competition in the high end smartphone space is fierce, and the major smartphone platforms are supported by companies much larger than BlackBerry," he said in a note to clients.

BlackBerry said this week that it has 100,000 apps for the BB10 platform, with 30,000 added in the past seven weeks.

"The response to the BlackBerry 10 platform and applications has been outstanding," said company spokesman Martyn Mallick.

"We constantly hear from developers that the BlackBerry 10 tools are easy to build with and that we provide opportunities for app differentiation that they do not see on other platforms."

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013

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