[donmateo]

BARCELONA, Spain -- John Chen was at a recent charity event when an announcer unexpectedly called out his name and introduced him as the man who was taking over BlackBerry.

Almost immediately, several attendees pulled their BlackBerry Bolds and began holding them up. At that point, he realized he couldn't keep sitting, and stood up and said a few words of encouragement and to keep the faith.

"There are some moments that are really great," Chen told CNET in an interview. "This is why there's quite a bit of good chance for us to turn this thing around."

It will take the entire BlackBerry faithful -- and then some -- for the embattled company to turn itself around. The company took the first steps on Tuesday, introducing two new smartphones in the form of the budget-friendly BlackBerry Z3, which will retail for less than $200 and launch in April, and the "classic" BlackBerry Q20, which isn't expected to hit the market until closer to the end of the year.

Chen teased more flagship phones to come in a press conference, but in a later interview with CNET, he offered a few more details. While the Q20 is the BlackBerry for its hardcore user base, the other flagship BlackBerry is intended to win over new customers. And there's a strong chance it will launch this year, although he said he couldn't guarantee it.

Read full article: BlackBerry CEO: We're readying another flagship to win over new customers | Mobile World Congress - CNET Reviews

[donmateo]

Sorry if this has been posted; did not see it.

Anyways, this is really exciting, IMO. We know the rumours are out there and such, but I am excited to see what they have. By then my contract will be up.

Also, I love Chen's sense of humour. This was well-played.

While the two sides have made up (Chen says their respective chief marketing officers are talking), Chen and Legere haven't met yet. Chen isn't too worried.

"I guess after he and I connect on MySpace we'll be fine," he said.

[2vince6]

John Chen is so freakin' amazing.

[grover5]

Thanks for the article OP. I'm very excited too.

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[Daniel Rudolf]

I wonder if the new flagship is the Windermere or Ontario? Given Chen's last statement that future phones will be predominately be keyboard devices it leads me to think that Ontario got cancelled.

[njasmine]

I see he totally forgot to mention anything about apps. In order to sell millions of phone they will needs apps, so hopefully by the time a new flagship comes out they will have google play services on board.

[Sammy2010]

I hope the one in SEPT is it with specs!!!

[Omnitech]

Also, I love Chen's sense of humour. This was well-played.

Yep, and smart-*** Legere needs to be taken down a notch or two.

Whether or not I was a Blackberry partisan, he comes across as an insincere, pompous twit.



This was also music to my ears, been one of my major peeves over the last year, along with lousy product documentation:


"Chen said that one of the biggest mistakes of the previous regime was the inability to educate the market about the benefits of the BlackBerry 10."

.

[toneytone]

I see he totally forgot to mention anything about apps. In order to sell millions of phone they will needs apps, so hopefully by the time a new flagship comes out they will have google play services on board.

Yes, the deal with Google has to get done.

[lordpuppy]

Exciting times! Hopefully Chen can back up his comments. I am waiting eagerly.

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[BlueStreak67]

"Chen said that one of the biggest mistakes of the previous regime was the inability to educate the market about the benefits of the BlackBerry 10."

.

+1

[qwerty4ever]

How many flagship devices can BlackBerry release before the churn stops? In less than a year they have announced three flagship smartphones only to relegate them to a lower status within six months.

Maybe BlackBerry should focus on one all-touch and one physical keyboard smartphone which are intended to be updated once every five years. A smartphone with 16 GB RAM, 128 GB system memory, 128 GB microSD card, software-driven all-frequency radio system, FM radio, HDMI, Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, Hotspot, Miracast, and reasonable pricing. BlackBerry must stand-up an internal application development team which can deliver native applications; the BlackBerry Developer Relations team should be integrated into this team.

Posted via the BlackBerry Q5 using CB10.

[neteng1000]

How many flagship devices can BlackBerry release before the churn stops? In less than a year they have announced three flagship smartphones only to relegate them to a lower status within six months.

Maybe BlackBerry should focus on one all-touch and one physical keyboard smartphone which are intended to be updated once every five years. A smartphone with 16 GB RAM, 128 GB system memory, 128 GB microSD card, software-driven all-frequency radio system, FM radio, HDMI, Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, Hotspot, Miracast, and reasonable pricing. BlackBerry must stand-up an internal application development team which can deliver native applications; the BlackBerry Developer Relations team should be integrated into this team.

Posted via the BlackBerry Q5 using CB10.

I think they were referring to the z20 but nobody knew about it when this comment was released

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