TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Last year, former Blackberry CEO, Thorsten Heins, has attempted to change the trademark of Blackberry phones from QWERTY to Touchscreen by launching the Blackberry 10. It was certainly an innovation, unfortunately, the changes have made Blackberry less popular and suffered quite a loss.
To earn its place back in the smartphone industry, Blackberry decided to work together with hardware manufacturer Foxconn. Their plan is to create another BB10 touchscreen code named 'Jakarta'. Is Blackberry going to fall in the same hole again?
However, the statement from CEO John Chen in the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is like a cool breeze for Blackberry users who misses the old QWERTY keyboard setup. Chen states that he will bring back Blackberry's iconic keyboard. "I personally love keyboards. The new Blackberry models will be dominated with QWERTY keyboard based design in the future," said Chen.
It is without question that the QWERTY keyboard setup is the main reason Blackberry handsets got so popular when they were first launched. QWERTY keyboards are very popular among business owners and the government since they are easy to work with. Keyboards are very important in Blackberry phones. Meanwhile, the company is planning to launch two new phone models that will be manufactured in Jakarta, Indonesia, with a price tag of just under Rp2 million (US$200).
RINDU P HESTYA | PHONE ARENA