BlackBerry seems to be on track to launch another QWERTY handset soon and images of the purported smartphone have leaked online.
The smartphone maker was one of the first companies to launch a smartphone this year and since then it has launched a number of QWERTY handsets such as the BlackBerry Q10 and the BlackBerry Q5.
BlackBerry launched the long-awaited BlackBerry 10 operating system in January this year, along with a couple of new handsets running on its latest software. Recently, the company also released the BlackBerry Q5, which came running on BlackBerry 10. However, rumors suggest that the BlackBerry 9720 will run on BlackBerry 7.1 and not on BlackBerry 10.
The company has already introduced the BlackBerry Q10 and the BlackBerry Q5 smartphones, both of which have physical QWERTY keyboards. The BlackBerry 9720 will be the third QWERTY handset from the company this year.
"In traditional BB7 style we still get the dedicated BBM key that we saw on the last few Curve devices released and the battery cover looks to be a new design - with almost a ribbed affect," reads a CrackBerry report.
The leaked image of the BlackBerry 9720 comes courtesy of Thai BlackBerry Club. The photo of the purported handset also suggests that the smartphone will borrow design cues from both the BlackBerry 10 series QWERTY smartphones, as well as from the older BlackBerry Bold 9790.
If the BlackBerry 9270 comes running on BlackBerry 7.1 instead of BlackBerry 10, there are chances that the handset will also have a lower price tag when compared to other recent QWERTY handsets offered by the company.
"I'm pretty confident that if this one does go on sale it will be restricted to certain markets where BlackBerry 7 is still going strong," adds the CrackBerry report.
The company has lost a major chunk of its smartphone share to rivals such as Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia and others. BlackBerry has high hopes for the new BlackBerry devices launched in 2013. However, many smartphone customers are more inclined toward touchscreen handsets rather than a full QWERTY-styled handset.
It will be interesting to see if the company is able to attract more customers to the upcoming BlackBerry 9720.
