The BlackBerry Z10 literally flew off the shelves following its price cut a few weeks back. Now, BlackBerry want to recreate the same magic with its 5-inch phablet the Z30 and has announced that the phone will now be available at an offer price of Rs 34,990. The price cut is about 10 per cent as the phone was selling for Rs 38,990 online.

The offer will last for 60 days.

Hitesh Shah, Director, Channel Sales, BlackBerry India said, “We have seen a phenomenal response to our initial promotional offer on the BlackBerry Z10 and are confident we will see similar off take for the 5-inch BlackBerry Z30. This price of Rs 34,990 will therefore ensure that consumers are able to experience the latest and best technology at an attractive cost.”

The offer will run across all BlackBerry retail networks and is being offered as part of the 10th anniversary of the company. The white BlackBerry Z30 will be exclusively available on Flipkart. The BlackBerry offer on the Z10 has resulted in the phone being sold out across India. The phone has now been restocked. However, we don’t expect the Z30 to be as popular gives that it is still a very expensive phone. Moreover, there are Android and Windows options in this screen size at a lower price range.

Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry has replenished stocks of its Z10 touchscreen model that were sold out in India after a 60% discount on the price. 

"BlackBerry Z10 has now been restocked across BlackBerry's retail network across the country and on Flipkart.com," the company's director for distribution in India, Sameer Bhatia, said in a statement. 

The device will be available for Rs 17,990, according to the statement. 

BlackBerry launched the Z10 about a year ago for Rs 43,990. The price was dropped to Rs 29,990 in September. 

On February 25, the company offered the phone at Rs 17,990 for a limited period. The model sold out within a week, although it was available on some e-commerce sites at a 22-50% higher price. 

Blackberry lowered handset prices in the face of losses due to declining sales and build-up of inventory across the globe. In December, the company offered incentives on handset sales, especially devices built on its latest platform BlackBerry 10. 

BlackBerry posted a loss of $4.4 billion in its third quarter ended November 30, mainly due to unsold handsets. 

The company recorded a primarily non-cash, pre-tax charge against inventory and supply commitments of approximately $1.6 billion in the quarter of fiscal 2014, which was primarily attributable to BlackBerry 10 devices. 

During the quarter, BlackBerry sold about 4.3 million smartphones to customers, of which 3.2 million were BlackBerry 7 devices, including models such as the BlackBerry Curve, Bold and Torch.

The BlackBerry Z10 that was released in India last year with a lot of expectations and promises, has received some rather major price cuts and its rate has fallen from Rs 43,490 to Rs 17,990. And now if you have decided to lay your hands on the gadget, then surely you would want to know exactly what the device brings to the table.So to assist you with the task of making your decision, we have penned down a detailed report of its features and specifications. Hopefully, it will help you decide whether you want this device or not. Take a look.

Features of the Z10:

The BlackBerry Z10 was the first device to have been launched with the BlackBerry 10 OS and a couple of software updates have been released for it as well. A number of enterprise features have been loaded into the device to keep users productive at all times. These include Remember, Balance, Calendar and much more. Security attributes have been built into it to help you keep your data safe.

Coming to the specifications, this smartphone is a full touch gadget and offers a viewing real estate of 4.2 inches of 1280 x 768p resolution. It has a 15:9 aspect ratio, while the pixel density is 356ppi. The gadget brings an 8MP camera with features like a BSI sensor, flash, time shift mode, 5x digital zoom and full HD recording amongst other things. A 2MP webcam has also been tossed into the mix for web conferencing purposes.

An updated onscreen keyboard with some advanced features has been deployed in the gadget as well. The blackberry Z10 has to make do with a dual core processor that ticks at 1.5GHz and it seeks assistance from 2GB of RAM. In case you find its 16GB onboard memory insufficient, you can insert a microSD card in the dedicated slot to bump it up by up to 32GB.

And what’s more, you can expect all the common connectivity options such as NFC, Bluetooth, 3G support, Wi-Fi, a USB port and more. A 1800mAh removable battery has been integrated to keep it going for 3G talk time of about 11 hours and standby time of close to 17 days.

Conclusion:

The BlackBerry Z10 is a decent device and is definitely a steal, now that its price has been slashed to Rs 17,990, albeit for a limited time. But we are not suggesting you to go for it considering that it is a little outdated and you can easily get an advanced mid-range Android device for this price. Are you still willing to get this phone?

Key specs of the Z10:

- 4.2-inch touchscreen
- 1.5GHz dual core chip
- BlackBerry 10 OS
- 2GB RAM, 16GB onboard
- 32GB expandability
- 8MP and 2MP cameras
- 1800mAh battery
- Black or white options

BlackBerry has reportedly added a host of features to its messaging service app, BBM, for iOS and Android.The updated BBM 2.0 app for third-party devices includes BBM Voice, BBM Channels, Dropbox, and Glymse-powered location sharing option.

According to Tech Crunch, the BBM Voice allows users to make direct voice calls to their BBM contacts via either Wi-Fi or cellular networks, while BBM Channels provides message-board style group interactions around a particular topic, theme or personality.

Location sharing via Glympse allows people to send their real-time current location, inclusive of timed data availability set by the user.

There is also a one-click sharing feature, which makes it easier for users to send photos, documents, voice messages and other kinds of content to their network connections.

The updated BBM 2.0 also includes expanded emoticon support, with 100 new ones added.

The report said that the updated BBM would allow the sinking smartphone manufacturer to have another chance at appealing to consumers and revive the lost market share.

BlackBerry had earlier announced exchange offer on Z10 as well under which it was offering up to Rs 11,000.

BlackBerry, in order to attract buyers, has reduced price of its Z10 smartphone. The BlackBerry Z10 is thus available from many online retailers for as low as Rs 29,990 while before this it was selling for around Rs 35,000. You can buy the phone at the reduced price till Diwali this year.

"Keeping in mind of this festive season, we have reduced the price of BlackBerry Z10 to Rs 29,990," said a BlackBerry spokesperson to The Mobile Indian.

BlackBerry had earlier announced exchange offer on Z10 as well under which it was offering up to Rs 11,000.

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BlackBerry Z10 was launched in India in February this year for Rs 43,499. features a 4.2-inch LCD touchscreen display with 1280x768 pixel resolution. nside its 9 mm chassis, rests a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 mobile processor, 2 GB RAM and 16 GB on-board storage. It has a micro SD card slot as well.

At the rear, BlackBerry has packed an 8 megapixel camera with auto focus, LED Flash and 5X digital zoom. This camera can be used to capture high quality images and also record full 1080p HD videos. BlackBerry Z10 also features a 2 megapixel front facing camera with 3X digital zoom and 720p HD video recording ability.

Apart from that, the BlackBerry Z10 packs dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Ambient Light Sensor and Near Field Communication chip. There is also a micro HDMI out port along with micro USB port.

BlackBerry Z10 come packed with an 1800 mAh battery that promises talk time of up to 10 hours and standby time of up to 305 hours on 3G network. This smartphone promises audio playback for up to 60 hours and video playback for up to 11 hours

BlackBerry said it will be at least next week until it relaunches the BlackBerry Messenger service for Android and iOS.

The delay comes amid some drastic problems that are hitting BlackBerry, including slow smartphone sales, layoff plans and an offer by an investment firm to take the company private.

In a blog post late Monday, BlackBerry Messenger head Andrew Bocking said workers are now trying to completely block an unreleased version of the BBM for Android app that first appeared on Saturday.

The unreleased app "resulted in volumes of data traffic orders of magnitude higher than normal for each active user and impacted the system in abnormal ways," he said.

About 1 million active users of the unreleased app suddenly appeared on Saturday, and BlackBerry quickly realized that the "only way to address the issue was to pause the rollout for both Android and iPhone."

Both rollouts had been scheduled for the weekend.

In addition to trying to completely block the unreleased app, BlackBerry is adjusting the system to avoid a similar scenario down the road. "While this may sound like a simple task, it's not," Bocking said. "This will take some time. I do not anticipate launching this week."

BBM has about 60 million monthly users on BlackBerry devices and the product is considered a bright spot in an otherwise dismal year for the Canadian smartphone maker.

On Friday, BlackBerry said it plans to take a nearly $1 billion write-off in its second fiscal quarter because of poor sales of smartphones, primarily the Z10, and would lay off 4,500 workers out of more than 12,000.

In August, BlackBerry created a special committee to study a possible sale of the company, and on Monday, the company announced that Fairfax Financial Holdings of Toronto has offered to buy Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry for $4.7 billion and take the company private. The deal is expected to close by Nov. 4.

Fairfax already owns 10% of BlackBerry shares. Its CEO, Prem Watsa, resigned from BlackBerry's board when the formal search for buyers kicked off in August.

In a statement released Monday, Watsa said that Fairfax would execute a long-term strategy at a privately-held BlackBerry "with a focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world."

BlackBerry had said last Friday that it planned to focus its smartphone business on enterprise and "prosumer"-centric devices, and that its product portfolio would be cut from six to four devices.

The Z10, which first shipped in the U.S. in March, is a full-screen touchscreen phone marketed as a consumer-centric product. BlackBerry's move into the consumer market represented a clear departure from the company's long-held reputation as a provider of smartphones to business users, especially those seeking a physical qwerty keyboard.

BlackBerry attributed slow sales of devices like the Z10 to the high level of competition in the smartphone market, where BlackBerry products are pitted against many popular Android phones, such as the new Galaxy S4, and Apple's iPhone, including the brand-new 5S and 5C models.

Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics, said BlackBerry is "going through massive losses and it is unclear how long [Fairfax] can keep the company afloat with no sales and a new product [the Z10] that flopped."

WATERLOO: BlackBerry signaled that a licensing deal, or even an outright sale of the company, was still a possibility, pleasing shareholders still reeling from the disappointing debut for its new line of smartphones. 

Chief executive Thorsten Heins, responding to a question about whether he was looking into strategic alternatives, said he is open to all options that create value for shareholders. He emphasized that the company has so far focused on creating value through the launch of its new devices powered by an all-new BlackBerry 10 operating system.

"This is a long-term transition for the company, but I can assure you that we're pushing very hard," Heins said at the company's annual shareholder meeting. "BlackBerry will pursue every opportunity to create value for shareholders."

His remarks that BlackBerry was also open to any and all licensing opportunities, sent shares higher in morning trading.

John Goldsmith, deputy head of equities at Montrusco Bolton, which owns more than 1.5 million BlackBerry shares, believes that BlackBerry may well be pressed into striking such a deal.

"I think they're on a very short leash," said Goldsmith, referring to BlackBerry's management. "I wouldn't be surprised if within the next two quarters there is a definitive announcement with regard to other options that this company could be looking at whether that's putting itself for sale or some other option."

The company's stock had dropped more than 30 percent after it posted disappointing second-quarter results in late June and forecast an operating loss in the current quarter.

A bigger concern for investors, was the fact that it sold fewer-than-expected BlackBerry 10 devices in their first full quarter on the market, offering little evidence that it could quickly win back market share from Apple Inc's iPhone, Samsung's Galaxy devices, and other phones powered by Google's Android operating system.

Even so, some investors believe many other companies would relish the prospect of getting their hands on the new platform.

"I can see why this guy is confident," said Ross Healy, a portfolio manager with MacNicol & Associates, whose clients own BlackBerry shares. "He is talking about partnerships and being open to talks and I don't think you say that unless you've really had a talk or two with interested parties - and that gives you some confidence."

At the meeting, held at BlackBerry's home base in Waterloo, Ontario, Heins conceded that BlackBerry has a tough road ahead as it attempts to turn around its fortunes, but he insisted it was on the right track.

Heins said BlackBerry was already seeing small signs of market-share gains in the top-end of the ultra-competitive smartphone market.

"Before you go into any strategic option, I think you have to create value. And the value of the company 15 months ago was way less than what it is today," he said.

Clock ticking
Despite the company's confident tone, many investors agree that the clock is ticking for BlackBerry, which is caught in a squeeze on both the high- and low-ends of the smartphone market.

BlackBerry 10 devices hit store shelves this year just as the high-end smartphone segment had begun to show some signs of saturation. Last week, Samsung reported results that fell shy of expectations, while Apple earlier this year reported its first quarterly profit decline in more than a decade.

On the mid- to low end, competition is growing intense, with Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies and ZTE gaining ground.

Even so, BlackBerry said it remains determined to stick to its plan and is not re-thinking its strategy in any manner.

"We as a board remain completely supportive of management," said the company's chair, Barbara Stymiest, adding that she was confident the turnaround plan would succeed.

Shareholders voted on Tuesday to elect all the company's director nominees to its board. They also approved the plan to change the company's name to BlackBerry from Research In Motion, a move that had been announced in January.

BlackBerry shares closed almost 1 per cent higher at $9.64 on the Nasdaq.