[johnny_bravo72]

But it's a... Huawei!
Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Design has race car looks, a QHD AMOLED screen - GSMArena.com news

*ME173X

[ohaiguise]

Replace the battery cover with one that has a BlackBerry logo, apply the 'secret sauce' and voila! It's a BlackBerry phone!

[zocster]

1400$? Yummy price not for everyone

[Uzi]

Very nice phone and great spec!

[Ecm]

But not available in North America...

[zocster]

But not available in North America...

You'd need to parallel import for a change?

[thurask]

We gettin' Arab money...

[johnny_bravo72]

But not available in North America...

I'm sure anyone that's interested and can afford to buy it can also afford to import it.

*ME173X

[Ecm]

You'd need to parallel import for a change?

Yeah, my wife would really appreciate me doing that!

[early2bed]

There's no reason why this type of smartphone couldn't be a BlackBerry, also, since this is a flagship phone and John Chen is licensing out the brand name.

[PantherBlitz]

Sure to be a winner! Who wouldn't want to pay $1400 for a generic-looking black plastic slab?

[Troy Tiscareno]

Porsche Design is simply a design house that makes branded, "luxury-edition" versions of other products. They have worked with a number of companies in the past, not just BB (and not just smartphones). BB had a contract with PD for a while, and when it ran out, they made a deal with Huawei - and when that deal expires, they may well move to yet another manufacturer. BB doesn't have any special "in" with PD - they just happened to be a top vendor when the deal was originally made, and were willing to do the deal at the time. Such deals are usually set up well in advance of the products being released.

[Bla1ze]

Making the Porsche Mate 9: A conversation with Porsche Design and Huawei's Chief Design Officers

To get a feel for the new device, and the partnership that led to its creation, we sat down with Roland Heiler, Chief Design Officer of Porsche Design, and Joon-Suh Kim, Chief Design Officer of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, shortly after the announcement in Munich, Germany.

[stlabrat]

hmm, interesting. I like BB 9982 and9983 better (stand out). Look like Leica try to partner with someone to gain market share from Zeiss camera... The chinese need some home brand for the luxery market and national pride. Porsche (the design house) gained some experience via BB and ready to sell its industry design and name for a good price (see below, it is a outer lay of similar guts, just like 9982 beef up ram version of z10 - that is a major upgrade plus the unique software. look and feel both are different)... utilize their new gained knowledge via bb experience on smart phone. If huawei pay BB arms and legs for hardware development, product qualification, etc. might be... but BB shut down the hardware devision, beside the patent, not much left - except para antenna (I am sure chinese can learn a lot from BB design in terms of reliability, form/fit/function based on xiaomi glass breaking type of product out in market...if hardware devision still alive)... As for software, anyone can pay to get Hub+ by paying few dollar... Co branding? I don't see what BB or Huawei are going to be "win, win"... don't mention security stuff... (sell the security code, that left bb with nothing else).
"Of course, under this partnership, Huawei still manufactures the Porsche Design Mate 9 itself. Internally, it uses most of the same guts as the regular Mate 9 — though with a few key upgrades. The key difference is branding — but it's not as superficial as it may sound. For the design company, it's about translating what makes the Porsche Design philosophy into smartphone form."