BlackBerry plans to launch two mid-range Android phones this year

PanARMENIAN.Net - BlackBerry has switched its focus back to the mid-range smartphone market after admitting that its recent flagship Android device, the BlackBerry Priv, was priced too high for enterprise customers, The National reports.

The company’s chief executive, John Chen, told The National that BlackBerry plans to launch two mid-range Android handsets this year, one with a physical keyboard and one with a full touchscreen. He declined to say when the new devices would go on sale.

BlackBerry last week announced it had sold just 600,000 handsets during the three months to the end of March, well below analyst forecasts of 850,000. Chen declined to say how many Privs had been sold during the period, The National says.

Chen admitted that the Priv “was too high-end a product", with its target market of enterprise customers put off by the handset’s $700 price tag.

“The fact that we came out with a high end phone [as our first Android device] was probably not as wise as it should have been," Chen said during a visit to Abu Dhabi.

Chen insisted that BlackBerry’s secure Android handset proposition was one that appealed particularly to enterprise consumers, The National says.