BlackBerry’s Response to the Phablet Craze is a Square Smartphone

BlackBerry users don’t have time for playing video games, updating their Facebook status, or taking selfies. They are in the business of “taking care of business” and require a no-nonsense smartphone that allows them to get the job done. And for many years, BlackBerry was able to provide them with just that.

Then the iPhone happened.

When BlackBerry users started jumping ship to Apple (and later Android), BlackBerry refused to change the design of their devices. The result was disastrous, causing the company to lose billions of dollars and millions of customers in the process. But now, under new leadership, BlackBerry is determined to make a comeback with a phone unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

Phablets are the Future, But Not for BlackBerry

Consumers have made it clear that “big” is one of their favorite smartphone features. Phablet shipments more than doubled between 2012 and 2013, and shipments are expected to reach 146 million units by 2016. With no sign of this momentum slowing down any time soon, we can only expect our smartphones to get bigger as the years go by.

Back when Samsung released the Galaxy Note in 2011, many smartphone manufacturers were skeptical that consumers would want to use such a big device. But just three short years later, everybody is making smartphones that are larger than five inches to meet consumer demand – except BlackBerry.

There’s a very good reason for BlackBerry not to follow the leader: BlackBerry users are different than the average consumer. These types of people are too busy to be bothered with everything that’s trending in the mobile world and can’t afford to waste any time. That’s why people like Barack Obama still use one.

Rather than go with the trend and follow in the footsteps of their competition, BlackBerry is redefining what a smartphone should look like. And what it looks like is a passport.

The Blackberry Passport is Packed With Power

Modeled after the shape of an actual passport, the all-new BlackBerry Passport looks entirely different from any other smartphone available today. The company believes this radical new design will redefine productivity for mobile professionals. If successful, it could also be the catalyst that brings the company back to relevance.

“As we set out to design BlackBerry Passport, we were guided by a simple yet challenging idea – to set aside the limitations of traditional design and to instead simply build a device that fundamentally changes the way business professionals get work done on their smartphone. The BlackBerry Passport was created to drive productivity and to break through the sea of rectangular-screen, all-touch devices.”

— John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO at BlackBerry

BlackBerry Passport Highlights

Large High-Resolution Square Screen – The BlackBerry Passport includes a 4.5” square screen with a 1:1 aspect ratio, 1440×1440 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 like BlackBerry Assistant. 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.

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.

The BlackBerry Passport is designed to help users be productive and not much else. But unlike its predecessors, this smartphone is actually capable of running some Android applications. Whether this will be enough to bring back recovering CrackBerry addicts and propel the company back to relevance is uncertain.

Who Wants a Square Phone?

It’s no secret that BlackBerry is in trouble. The number of BlackBerry users has been steadily declining year after year and with less than 1% of the global smartphone operating system market share, developing a smartphone with an unproven design is a very risky move – especially for a company like BlackBerry.

At this point, it may seem like BlackBerry has nothing to lose and needs to take a huge risk to receive a high reward. But if business history has taught us anything, it’s that companies that don’t adapt to their customers’ ever-changing habits will not survive. (Have you seen anyone with a Palm PDA lately? Neither have I.)

BlackBerry was able to succeed because they created a niche market for themselves and catered to it very well. But in 2014, that market is gone. Sure, there are still 11.8 million Americans (including the President) who are still using a BlackBerry smartphone, but with 95% of the world using an Android or iOS device, maybe it’s time for BlackBerry to get with the times and go big.

The Passport is the biggest (and definitely the squarest) smartphone BlackBerry has ever produced. Those of you who have stuck with BlackBerry will probably enjoy using one. But for most of you, a square smartphone is probably not enough to convince you to get rid of your phablet.

Or is it?

Will the BlackBerry Passport bring back ex-CrackBerry addicts? Should BlackBerry make a phablet? Let us know in the comments below!