Blackberry Leap to hit Indian market next week; introduces virtual SIM solution ‘Movirtu

The Canadian smartphone maker and enterprise solutions maker Blackberry has launched a new smartphone, the Blackberry Leap in the Indian market. The device will hit the shelves next week. However, Blackberry has not revealed the prices yet.

Blackberry Leap comes with a 5 inch full HD display and is a FD-LTE 4G device. It comes packed with 2GB RAM and 32 GB internal storage capacity which is expandable, 8 megapixel camera and 2 megapixel front camera. It has 2800 mAh battery, which will last about 25 hours, claims BlackBerry. The device runs on BlackBerry 10.3.1 OS, and comes bundled with BlackBerry Blend, Assistant, and dual-app stores — BlackBerry World and Amazon App Store. Blackberry has positioning the device along with its BES 12 Cloud service which primarily targets the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The all-touch device will be an entry phone for the professionals like an entrepreneurs, told BlackBerry India MD Sunil Lalvani. He also said that it is not a low-cost device and is positioned in the mid and high tier segment. The sale of the handset has begun in international markets like US, UK, France, and Germany.

Virtual Sim solution ‘Movirtu’

Besides this announcement, BlackBerry also introduced mobile virtual SIM solution, ‘Movirtu’ for the Indian market. This service is based on its acquisition of Movirtu. Blackberry had acquired a London based technology firm Movirtu last year.

The virtual SIM solution would take out the hassle of carrying multiple physical SIM cards in a single mobile device and will enable a user to use upto nine different mobile numbers with a single sim.

The company is ready to launch this service, but it is waiting for a few clearances from the government, told Lalvani.

Lalvani said that this service will be rolled out by the second half of this year. The solution has already been rolled out in Africa, and in the pipeline to be launched in other markets like Europe and Asia Pacific.