New Delhi: John Chen, CEO of Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry has said that the company is all set to unveil two mid-range Android smartphones this fiscal, with indications that at least one of the launches could come as early as next month. The remarks by Chen follow the company’s revelation earlier this year stating that it will unveil two mid-range Android smartphones in 2016.
Chen revealed that more details about the two smartphones will be unveiled next month. Although we don’t have much information about the smartphones, it is very evident that there will be no smartphones positioned for the high-end market this year.
Speaking to Mobile Syrup, Chen said, "I'm not really prepared to unveil any detail about the smartphones. I guess I was thinking about doing that more in July time frame. I have spoken about having two of them in between now and the end of this fiscal year, and they usually they both of them more in the mid-range and mid to high, not going to be a high end phone."
Earlier, BlackBerry announced its Q1 2017 results where the company revealed that it sold just 500,000 phones globally in the first fiscal quarter - down from 600,000 in the previous quarter. The company also reported a net loss of $670 million (Rs.4 lakh cr approx.), which is its biggest loss in over two years.
Chen says that he still believes that BlackBerry can profit from its device business. In the meantime, Facebook and WhatsApp have already announced that they are ending support for BlackBerry devices.
