There’s no doubt in the fact that 2014 is a very crucial year for BlackBerry. It has finally started getting some positive press after the fiasco that was its plans to search for a buyer. Ultimately the company opted for a management shakeup and since then has tightened its belt so much so that a surprise profit was reported in the previous quarter. Success in the hardware business is vital to its future and the leaked 2014 global roadmap may provide us some hints about how the company aims to go about this.
N4BB has leaked what it claims to be the BlackBerry 2014 Global Roadmap. It shows how the company plans on attacking the market in 2014 and the future. The market has been divided in four segments, Affordable, Classic, Innovative and Prestige, and each will be tackled by a specific device.
For each segment the devices mentioned in the roadmap include the Affordable “Manitoba,” Classic “Q20,” Innovative “Windermere” and the Prestige “Khan.”
We have already heard a lot about BlackBerry’s upcoming devices. The Classic is meant for diehard BB fans that can’t make do without the iconic trackpad and function key belt. The Windermere is BlackBerry’s highly anticipated Passport which features the innovative trackpad-cum-keyboard. Last but not the least, Prestige is the Porsche Design P’9983.
As per the roadmap both Windermere and Khan will be released in Q3, 2014. At the same time BlackBerry OS 10.3 will be released alongside BlackBerry Blend which will bring BBM, emails and much more to desktop and tablets. In Q4 2014 BlackBerry will release OS 10.3.1 update for “in life” devices, which would include newer models as well as the Z10, Z30, Q10, Q5 and the Z3.
The roadmap doesn’t point out when the Q20 Classic and the Manitoba Z3 LTE will be released in 2014. This may lead to questions about these devices being pushed to 2015 but its too soon to say that for sure now.
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