BlackBerry slashes Q10 price by over 13%

NEW DELHI: Smartphone maker BlackBerry Monday cut price of its Q 10 handset by 13% to Rs 38,990 till January 26, in a bid to improve sales.

The company said that it wanted to reach out to more BlackBerry loyalists with this scheme. "There are several customers in India who love the physical QWERTY experience offered by BlackBerry. At this price point, QWERTY loyalists can take advantage of the powerful BlackBerry 10 platform as well as the unique QWERTY experience that the BlackBerry Q10 offers,” BlackBerry India Managing Director Sunil Lalvani said.

The Canadian handset maker had slashed price of its BB 10 OS flagship device - the Z 10 - by 31% to Rs 29,990, making it clear that the company's premium pricing policy does not seem to making any dent in the heavily competitive Indian handset market.

While the company has been trying to create alternate streams of revenue monetisation by taking its popular messaging service BBM to other operating systems and launchign BBM Channels, a subscription based chat service, it is yet make a serious impact with this strategy.

BlackBerry recently began offering free and discounted apps for its BB10 operating system-run devices including the Q5 and Z30. In India, the company's four BB10-powered devices are priced between Rs 22,000 and Rs 44,000.