BlackBerry Passport Redefines Productivity for Mobile Professionals with Boundary-Breaking Design and Features

Continuing its strategy to arm mobile professionals with tools that make them more productive, BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB), a global leader in mobile communications, today launched the BlackBerry® Passport in India. Featuring a large square touch screen and new QWERTY touch-enabled keyboard, the BlackBerry Passport is a device purpose-built for productivity-driven business professionals who want a smartphone that empowers them with the mobile tools they need to get things done, without sacrificing style or portability.

“It is a matter of immense pride to launch an industry defining product as we continue to build on our productivity portfolio. BlackBerry sets yet another benchmark with the BlackBerry Passport, that will radically transform the mobility experience of today’s power users and enable them to achieve more,” said Sunil Lalvani, Managing Director, BlackBerry India.“With its unique design and innovative features, the BlackBerry Passport is a testament to our continued focus on innovation and productivity, specifically to strengthen our enterprise segment offerings.”

“We are very happy to be the partner of choice for Blackberry and offer our customers the opportunity to be the first to own the Passport during the ongoing festival season. Mobile phones are one of the fastest growing product lines on Amazon.in. We see this as a great opportunity to offer customers across India – even those residing in the remote areas of the country- the ease, convenience & joy of experiencing this new device and add excitement to their festival shopping,” said Amit Agarwal, Vice President and Country Manager, Amazon India

Thoughtful Design for the Mobile Professional

Inspired by actual passports, the universal symbol of mobility, the size and form factor of BlackBerry Passport is portable enough to easily tuck into pockets and use wherever you go.Utilizing premium, robust materials such as Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3for the display and forged stainless steel for added strength, BlackBerry Passport will provide the durability business professionals require in a smartphone.

The large square screen is optimized for viewing and creating content, and will make everyday tasks like reading and writing emails, reviewing and editing documents, web browsing, and map navigation, more comfortable and effortless. The BlackBerry Passport includes the industry’s first touch-enabled keyboard with gestures that make typing, editing and navigating more efficient and accurate. BlackBerry's physical QWERTY keyboards have always made it easier for users to create polished, professional communications with exceptional accuracy. BlackBerry Passport's new QWERTY keyboard is almost four times more accurate than BlackBerry® 10 virtual keyboards – the error rate is on average 74% lower – so there are fewer typos to get in the way of what you’re trying to say.

The BlackBerry Passport along with Porsche Design P’9983 smartphone from BlackBerry®,are the first devices to launch on BlackBerry’s latest OS platform, BlackBerry® 10.3. They come preloaded with new productivity-enhancingfeatures including BlackBerry® Blend and BlackBerry® Assistant, as well as the BlackBerry® World™ storefront and Amazon Appstore, offering access to the very best apps for work and play.

BlackBerry Blend: BlackBerry Blend brings messaging and content thatis on your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer and tablet. Get instant message notifications, read and respond to your work and personal email, BBM™ or text messages, and access your documents, calendar, contacts and media in real time on whatever device you are on, powered by your BlackBerry. BlackBerry Blend is being introduced on the BlackBerry Passport andwill work across desktop operating systems, including Mac OS X 10.7 +, Windows® 7+ and Android™ tablets running Android 4.4+ via cellular, USB or Wi-Fi connections. BlackBerry is also working to bring the Blend experience on other tablets soon. The downloadable version of BlackBerry Blend for Macs and PCs is available today at www.BlackBerry.com/Blend, on the Apple® App Store^SM for iPad tablets, or via the Google Play™ Store for Android tablets.

Highlight features of the BlackBerry Passport include:

• Large High-Resolution Square Screen – The BlackBerry Passport includes a 4.5” square screen with a1:1 aspect ratio, 1440x1440 pixel(453 dpi) HD display and Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 for added strength.
• Innovative BlackBerry® Keyboard – The BlackBerry Passport’s revolutionary new keyboard brings innovation to input with a responsive touch surface like a trackpad that lets you perform many touch functions directly on the keyboard. You can scroll web pages, flick to type or slide along the keys to move the cursor, leaving the full screen space for viewing.
• BlackBerry® 10 OS 10.3 – The BlackBerry Passport comes preloaded with the new BlackBerry 10.3 operating system, including new features such as BlackBerry Assistant, BlackBerry Blend and Amazon Appstore. It has a fresh look that incorporates updated icons and an instant action bar so that each user’s most commonly accessed functions are in the center of their screen.
• Best-in-Class Battery Life –The 3450 mAh battery is the largest among the top selling smartphones and phablets and, when tested against a very active user, provides up to 30 hours of mixed use. It’s our best battery power to date.*
• Dual app storefronts for a Wealth of Professional and Popular Apps
• BlackBerry® World– BlackBerry World showcases essential productivity apps for business professionals looking to drive efficient communications and collaboration.
• Amazon Appstore – Preloaded on BlackBerry Passport, users can access popular consumer apps through the Amazon Appstore, including the latest Android games and apps, such as Minecraft - Pocket Edition, Candy Crush Saga, Pinterest, Temple Run 2 and Cut the Rope 2.
• BlackBerry® Assistant–The BlackBerry Assistant is BlackBerry’s first digital assistant and can be used with voice and text commands to help users manage work and personal email, contacts, calendar and other native BlackBerry 10 applications. BlackBerry Assistant intelligently determines how to respond to you based on how you interact with it – if you type, it responds silently, if you speak, it speaks back and if you activate over Bluetooth, it speaks back with additional context because it assumes you might not have access to the screen.
• Premium Components – The device is built for the most demanding user using durable materials mixed with top-of-the-line technology, including a Quad Core 2.2 GHZ Processor, 3 GB RAM, 13 MP OIS rear camera and 32 GB memory.
• BlackBerry® Natural Sound – BlackBerry Passport comes with powerful speakers and a quad microphone system that delivers a high-quality listening experience. BlackBerry Natural Sound Technology is built in to adapt Wi-Fi and cellular call sound depending upon phone position and background noise, automatically adjusting volume so you don’t have to.

Availability:

The new BlackBerry Passport smartphone is available for pre-booking at Amazon.in and at all BlackBerry Exclusive Stores from September 29^th, 2014 to October 10, 2014.  Customers pre-booking their BlackBerry Passport on Amazon.in would receive a gift card worth Rs. 5000/ which can be redeemed for future purchases on Amazon.in. Additionally, frequent fliers with Jet airways would also receive 5000 complimentary miles to their existing JP account.

For more information about BlackBerry Passport, please visit www.BlackBerry.com/Passport. To learn more about BlackBerry Blend, please visit www.BlackBerry.com/Blend.

*Based on mixed usage scenario. Many factors affect battery life, including network connectivity, application usage, feature configuration and battery age. Actual results may vary.

About BlackBerry

A global leader in mobile communications, BlackBerry® revolutionized the mobile industry when it was introduced in 1999. Today, BlackBerry aims to inspire the success of our millions of customers around the world by continuously pushing the boundaries of mobile experiences. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry operates offices in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The Company trades under the ticker symbols "BB" on the Toronto Stock Exchange and "BBRY" on the NASDAQ. For more information, visit www.BlackBerry.com