Posted inGadgets

Dubai picked as launch city for new BlackBerry smartphone

Emirate will launch the new BlackBerry Passport alongside London and Toronto on September 24

Dubai has been chosen as one of three cities to launch the much-anticipated new BlackBerry Passport smartphone.

The launch event will be a global affair similar to the launch of BlackBerry 10 and the BlackBerry Z10 handset, taking place in Dubai, London and Toronto on September 24.

No details have yet been released about the launch but media have received invitations to “see the bigger picture”.

The new device has many new elements of design, the key feature of the phone is a 4.5 inch square display which can show up to 60 characters per row, which is more than any other square handsets available yet.

A second feature of the phone is its newly designed qwerty keyboard which has three rows for type alphabets and also has one virtual row on the display itself, for type numbers.

Last month, BlackBerry Middle East announced a tie-up with the UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) that will see the vendor support the mGovernment initiative outlined by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai.

The initiative is part of a UAE-wide effort to make the country’s e-government services available across mobile devices, thereby creating a ‘smart government’.

BlackBerry’s contribution to this will be to provide support and expertise in the development of a Mobile Centre of Excellence.

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