SourceCode: For BlackBerry, all roads lead to NYC for Classic launch

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

BlackBerry is set to close the year by launching the BlackBerry Classic smartphone across various venues with the main event taking place in New York this Wednesday. What does BlackBerry hope to achieve with this device and more importantly, who is its desired audience?

BlackBerry is a company on the mend, one that was forced into restructuring and refocusing its key strengths. A few months ago, the BlackBerry Passport was released and made quite an impact. The device is unlike anything anyone has ever seen and yet, brought some innovative features as well as a whole new perspective in the supersized smartphone market and one that put renewed focus on the QWERTY keyboard.

The BlackBerry Classic is expected to be an iconic product for the company since it melds past and present (hopefully the future, too).

A premium device that's designed primarily for enterprise users, the Classic brings back a lot of functionality that made BlackBerry indispensable during its heyday including the "Belt" which incorporates the trackpad as well as the function keys plus various shortcuts and combinations that many long term BlackBerry users are already familiar with.

Could the BlackBerry Classic, which brings the latest BlackBerry 10 OS, app store and even the ability to run certain sideloaded Android apps, really be the device BlackBerry fans have long desired?

It isn't the first QWERTY enabled BB10 device, the Q10 and the Q5 have been around for over a year and do offer both touch functionality as well as revamped QWERTY keyboards. The BlackBerry Classic is more premium than these two devices, it is larger and it also brings updated hardware and functionality that BlackBerry hopes will rekindle the love affair many people had with earlier devices. 

With the Classic, BlackBerry has settled on the right size, smaller than the Passport but still larger than previous devices, to usher in its future in the handset business. It's a device designed for loyalists but also has a number of software and hardware features that BlackBerry hopes will interest new users looking for a different experience;

It is a calculated risk and one that pools in the best aspects of the past and the present to create a device that will hopefully resonate with the segment of the market that appreciates a powerful and secure keyboard-based smartphone experience. All indicators prove that the Classic has the mojo to make a big splash. 

All preoders for the device in BlackBerry's online store have sold out in anticipation of the December 17 release date. It will be interesting to see what sort of demand the device creates.

I'll be on hand in New York this Wednesday for the big unveiling and expect to bring reports from the field as well as some hands on insights on the new device and some of its accessories followed by a full review in the coming weeks.