BB’s Back

  After languishing in the dust of Apple, Samsung and other smartphone makers, BlackBerry staged a comeback in January with the Dubai launch of the Z10, the first solely touch-screen device in the BB family. Powered by a new BlackBerry 10 OS, the Z10 impressed BB lovers with a faster, easy-to-use browser and the multi-tasking abilities of BlackBerry Hub and BlackBerry Remember. The BlackBerry Q10 was released in May for old-school users who can’t live without the QWERTY keyboard. There’s something to be said for brand loyalty, but tech observers still note that the Z10 simply pushes the BlackBerry to an even playing field against the Windows, iPhones and Androids. BBM also made some headway when an Android and iPhone-compatible version of the private social network app launched in October. BlackBerry boasted 10 million downloads of the free app on the first day, calling it one of the one of the best single-day openings for a mobile app to date. Bent on ending the year with a bang, BlackBerry last month launched the exclusive Porsche Design P’9982 Smartphone. With its sleek lines, the all-touch Porsche is lovingly handcrafted and features only high-end materials.