A couple of weeks ago, BlackBerry announced bringing the BlackBerry Z3 to the Middle East. The device has now reportedly launched in the UAE for AED899 ($244, £142)
The device will be available for customers from today across all retailers including the BlackBerry Store in the Dubai Mall. This, like many other markets, will be the first BlackBerry device since the Z30 to hit the shelves, adding to the fact that this is the first Foxconn device offered to the Middle Eastern market, who have had a good reputation with their BlackBerry loyalty. So, this device launch in the Middle East is important in more than one way.
According to Mike Al Mefleh, senior director, product management and services, Middle East, North Africa and Turkey of BlackBerry:
“Initially the Z3 was introduced and targeted for the Indonesian and Iraq market where it was doing well and creating a lot of excitement and as a result, BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen decided that we should roll it out to eight more markets, the Middle East being one of them. The Middle East has shown a lot of interest and attraction to the Z3 and since we announced it on 24 June we have had many pre-orders in the store and it’s been very exciting. We have also had a lot of positive feedback in Dubai which helps us to reach a larger generation of customers.”
Interestingly enough, we know BlackBerry is now committed to the Android app support on BlackBerry 10, Al Mefleh mentioned the ease of obtaining Android apps including the likes of Instagram on the Z3 too:
“We have developed the BBM applications which exceed 200,000 now, but as well as this we now give access to consumers to more applications they need and it benefits the developers also as they don’t need to make applications for each different platform this allows BlackBerry users to have access to their apps via Android links,”
“We need to go where the trend is and go with what people like, Z3 users will be able to install Instagram within minutes.”
Not entirely sure on what he meant by 200k BBM apps, but I can only assume that was either a typo by the original article or infact BlackBerry World now hosts 200k apps, up 80k from the last we heard on the subject from Thorsten Heins, former CEO of BlackBerry.
Incase you forgot, here is the rundown including specifications of the BlackBerry Z3.
Next up, 4G/LTE device release across Europe, please, Mr Chen!
Source: Arabian Business