BlackBerry has been known to cater to a particular niche, that of business professionals. Their phones' physical keyboards and robust security features are what sold many BlackBerry handsets to those who make their living in the corporate world.
In this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, BlackBerry hopes to expand their market base to include young professionals. They announced the Leap, an all-touch 5-inch smartphone that will eventually replace the BlackBerry Z3 as the company's flagship touchscreen device.
"In today's mobile world – influenced by trends like BYOD – where personal and corporate data are frequently under attack from hackers, companies and everyday consumers are finding out the hard way that mobile security is paramount," Ron Louks of Devices and Emerging Solutions said. "BlackBerry Leap was built specifically for mobile professionals who see their smartphone device as a powerful and durable productivity tool that also safeguards sensitive communications at all times."
Specs of the handset tell that this smartphone is targeted at the mid-range class, those of young professionals rather than corporate executives needing premium-class phones. Running on the newest 10.3.1 BlackBerry OS, it has a 5-inch edge-to-edge display with 720p HD resolution, an 8-megapixel back-mounted camera, and 16 GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD.
What sets the Leap apart from other devices, though, is in its built-in anti-malware protection and encryption support. Also, BlackBerry knows that professionals multi-task almost everything in their phones, and came up with a 2800 mAh battery, optimized for power consumption that will give users at least 25 hours of continued heavy usage.
At the MWC 2015, BlackBerry also said it will come up with two more devices in the next months, with one already being shown to the public as a teaser.
According to John Chen, BlackBerry Chief Executive, "We don't have a code name for it but I call it The Slide." He then added, "It will come some time this year."
