Although the BlackBerry Z10 serves as a great BlackBerry 10 flagship at the moment, the smartphone industry is very fast-paced – companies are forced to innovate or decline into irrelevancy. As such, CEO Thorsten Heins revealed today that BlackBerry is planning a new, “exciting” flagship device for the holiday season.
In an interview with CNET, Heins said, “There’s one new product I’m really excited about, but I can’t really share it.” Although it’s planned for the holiday season, he isn’t certain that it will hit before the end of the year just yet. The only comment he could make on this device was that, “It takes BlackBerry 10 to another level in terms of the user experience.” He also confirmed that there will be a midtier device launched later this year, and that the Q10 is set to hit markets a month or two behind the Z10, depending mostly on the carrier approval process.
BlackBerry’s long-term plan is to have a three-tier lineup of smartphones, each with a full-touch and physical keyboard model. All of the planned devices will use the same display sizes as the Z10 and Q10, in order to maintain a consistent look with third-party apps.
It’s hard to say at the moment just what to expect from these devices. The flagship in question could be the long-rumoured Aristo device, but the spec sheet for the Aristo was written very long ago, and would probably pale next to the competition a year from now. Even if they stick with the same codename, chances are it’ll be a much different device than the age-old leaks suggested.
Source: CNET