BlackBerry will be offering three tiers of smartphones in its BlackBerry 10 portfolio. So far, two smartphones belonging to the highend tier has been launched in the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 with at least one more highend smartphone expected before the end of the year according to news reports.
Speaking with CNET, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins confirmed that BlackBerry will be launching a mid-tier smartphone later this year and one other smartphone which Heins was quoted to have said it will take the BlackBerry 10 experience to a whole new level will be launched much later in the holiday season. He was also quoted as saying that three or four BlackBerry devices will be launched this year.
Doing the math, it means that the low tier BlackBerry 10 phones, which a lot of BlackBerry consumers in Nigeria will be interested in will probably not be launched this year. You may have to wait till next year to buy a low cost BlackBerry 10 phone.
However, the exciting thing about BlackBerry smartphone strategy is that it will feature the same display size across all tiers. Each tier will be available in touch only models like the BlackBerry Z10 with the same 4.2-inch size and physical QWERTY keyboard models with the same 3.1-inch display size just like the BlackBerry Q10.
This means that no matter the tier of BlackBerry 10 you buy into, you will get the same screen size, which is exciting, especially for budget consumers. Developers may also find it easier to build apps for BlackBerry 10, because of the consistent user interface.