BlackBerry Z3 appears in photo with the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Z30

A picture out of Malaysia shows the BlackBerry Z3, positioned after the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Z30. The Z3 is the first handset to roll off the assembly line under the terms of a five-year pact between BlackBerry and contract manufacturer Foxconn. The deal calls for the latter to design, produce and store entry-level BlackBerry models for the emerging markets. BlackBerry's contribution is the OS and marketing. Both companies will split the profits.

Considering that the majority of phones sold by the Canadian based firm are still older BlackBerry 7 OS units, the goal with these lower priced entry-level devices is to get consumers in emerging markets to sample BlackBerry's latest OS, and make the switch. New CEO John Chen has already hedged on this plan, by announcing last week that the company would restart production of the BlackBerry Bold 9900, an older model that was originally released in August of 2011. That phone does have BlackBerry 7 installed.

As you can see in the photo, the screen on the 5 inch Z30 matches the size of the screen on the Z3. The latter's display is 540 x 960 which produces a 220ppi pixel density. That compares to the 720 x 1280 resolution on the screen of the flagship Berry, which offers a 330ppi pixel density.

The BlackBerry Z3 is scheduled to launch in Indonesia sometime this month, before it becomes available in other emerging markets.


source: GengBBM (translated) via Crackberry