For all Verizon Wireless customers who like their smartphones to have some bit of old-school charm, they may be happy to know that the BlackBerry Classic will become available on the Big Red's online store starting February 26th of this year.
The carrier will be selling the BlackBerry Classic for $100 with the standard two-year agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate. Those who want to see the device at the nearest Verizon Wireless store in their area will have to exercise some patience -- the handset is scheduled to hit shelves on March 5th.
Today, BlackBerry is no longer one of the industry leaders in the phone making business. As a matter of fact, its market share in the smartphone market is just less than 1 percent. The company is still here of course and it continues to fight back by introducing new devices that could attract specific buyers, especially those with an eye for traditional BlackBerrys.
When it comes to design, the BlackBerry Classic certainly incorporates a traditional look. It even sports a physical QWERTY keyboard, which is definitely a far cry from the touch screen smartphones that make up the majority of mobile devices sold today.
Its other features include a 3.5-inch HD display screen made of Corning Gorilla Glass 3, a 1.5 GigaHertz twin-core Snapdragon chip set, 2 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM), 16 gigabytes of internal storage (with microSD card support of up to 128 gigabytes), and a 2,500 mAh battery.
The BlackBerry Classic runs on the latest BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system. This is definitely a nice improvement, especially when compared with the operating system used on BlackBerry's previous smartphone offering, the BlackBerry Bold 9900. The BlackBerry Classic's operating system also sports a decent web browser and can even tap into high-speed LTE networks when needed.
Of course, BlackBerry will not be able to compete directly with the likes of Apple and Samsung. But with the BlackBerry Classic, the company is surely hoping that it could generate enough interest to produce sales, especially from the old-school, die-hard BlackBerry fanbase crowd.
The BlackBerry Classic was officially launched in December of last year during an event held in New York City. It has already been available at another major wireless carrier, AT&T, since February 20th. AT&T is selling the device for $50 with a two-year agreement, and $420 with no contract.
Interested to know more about other BlackBerry devices? You can start exploring BlackBerry phones and plans now.
