BlackBerry launches Z30 at Rs 39,990 in India

New Delhi: BlackBerry has launched its latest flagship smartphone Z30 in India, pricing it at Rs 39,990, taking on matching products from rivals like Apple Inc, Samsung, Nokia and HTC.Z30, which will feature BlackBerry's latest version of its BB 10 operating system, has a 8 mega pixel rear camera with a 1.7 GHz processor.The handset maker, that saw more than 10 million global downloads of its popular chat application BBM in the first 24 hours of re-launch, said it will organise promotion programmes to attract urban youth to the chat app.Introducing its high-end smartphone with an eye on the festive season demand rush, BlackBerry said Z30 -- which was originally priced at Rs 44,990 -- will be available in retail stores across the country early next week.The firm is offering 12-month EMI options for purchasing its latest premium segment offering.The 5-inch device with Super AMOLED display and a 1.7 GHz processor with quad-core graphics comes with stereo speakers as well as its latest technology, BlackBerry Natural Sound, which promises a unique audio experience. This is biggest phone from the BlackBerry stable so far.The touchphone has a 2 GB RAM and has an internal memory of 16 GB, which can be expanded to to 64 GB. It has an 8 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front facing camera.The company has also increased the battery to 2,880 mAh capacity, which the firm claims will last up to 25 hours."BlackBerry Z30 is the ultimate smartphone for the urban youth and consumers who are looking for a bigger screen size, long-lasting battery and a best in class productivity experience," BlackBerry India Managing Director Sunil Lalvani said here.Besides, the latest version will add more refinement to communication. The BBM script now supports 'Hinglish' as a text, which is the first-of-its-kind feature in the domestic market, he claimed.Analysts feel that this festival season the Z30 will face strong competition from other flagship smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 & Galaxy S4, Apple iPhone 5s, 5c, LG G2 and Sony Xperia Z1.Once a dominant player in the handset market, BlackBerry has lost market share to rivals like Apple (iPhone), Google's Android-powered devices and now Nokia's Lumia range, which are powered with Microsoft's Windows phone OS.The company about ten months back had launched its first touch phone Z10, which failed to live up to expectations.According to research firm IDC, globally Windows Phone shipments have been surpassing BlackBerry for the first two quarters in 2013 calendar year.Similarly, Gartner said among worldwide device shipments by operating system (OS), BlackBerry sold 35.58 million units in 2012. The firm predicts that its global shipments will decline to 23.10 million units in 2013 and 19.3 million units in 2014.BlackBerry will establish 20 centres across the country to allow people to experience the Z30.On apps for its latest premium segment offering, BlackBerry said it has close to 140,000 apps in its app world.On BB 10 OS 10.2 version updates, Lalvani said Z10 and Q5 customers will receive free updates starting this weekend, while update for Q10 will follow next week.Meanwhile, global response to BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), which was re-launched on October 22, has given the firm the much needed shot-in-the-arm and it is all set to launch promotional programmes in India to attract youth.The company will launch the programme in two stages -- college activation and cafe activation.Under the college activation, BlackBerry is targeting 70,000 downloads of BBM, while under cafe activation, in which it will collaborate with Cafe Coffee Day chain, it is targeting 50,000 downloads of the app.In September, BlackBerry had paused the global rollout of its instant messaging service BBM on rival phones, blaming the delay on issues caused by an unreleased old version of BBM.