Live from the BlackBerry Classic launch event in New York

Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

New York -It's a red-letter day for BlackBerry today as they are set to launch the widely anticipated BlackBerry Classic smartphone. We're on the ground in downtown New York where the main event is taking place while satellite launch events are taking place in Frankfurt, Germany as well as in Singapore.

The BlackBerry Classic is the latest device sporting the BB10 OS but it also features many key functionalities that BlackBerry users have loved for years, it returns the popular 'belt' as well as the trackpad, while maintaining the QWERTY keyboard that's been BlackBerry's trademark all along.

Like previous BB10 devices, it can run BlackBerry apps as well as manage Android applications installed through the Amazon App Store. The Classic also marks the return of many keyboard shortcuts and combinations to the BlackBerry OS.

During the launch event, BlackBerry CEO explained that the Classic required some effort to put together because it integrated a lot of older features that were huge for earlier pre-BB10 handsets from the Bold line. The BlackBerry Bold is considered the CEO and governement user's device and was so successful that many users held on to their devices despite newer touch-display oriented devices.

The announcement focused on the device's features with BlackBerry CEO John Chen explaining that many CEOs and partners have stressed they loved their old BlackBerry Bold, specifically the trackpad, keyboard and the control keys. This was really the objective behind the BlackBerry Classic, to give these users a device that's familiar but new. 

The event focused on the Classic as a handset, specific use cases in business and enterprise as well as may of the solutions that BlackBerry has developed including cross-platform BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), BlackBerry Blend as well as VPN Authentication. These apps are being sold as subscription to users for around $7.00 a month and are enterprise grade in terms of security.

The focus on the BlackBerry Classic was compared to the popular BlackBerry Bold 9900, a device that was long considered to be the best smartphone made by BlackBerry and one that remains in use in enterprise despite running an old version of the OS. The Classic upgrades the experience that was refined in the Bold line but also introduces new ways to be productive.