Despite weak sales, Canadian phone maker BlackBerry is determined to regain its number one position in the mobile phone market by planning the release of a new flagship device by the second half of 2013. The A10, featuring a 5-inch Super AMOLED display, dual-core processor and a separate graphic processor, will roll out by fall.

It would be largest phone BlackBerry, the former Research in Motion, will manufacture in terms of screen size in a bid to catch up with Samsung, HTC, Sony and Apple which had been releasing larger screen units. Codenamed Aristo, the A10 will be positioned as the most powerful, capable BlackBerry yet, with focus on power and gaming.

However, BGR, which leaked the image of the A10 below, pointed out that the new phone will have a display resolution of 1280x720 which is comparable to 1080p displays on other large-screen phones already out in the market that offer pixel densities of 350 ppi or higher.

Original source: BGR

Sources of BGR said the A10 style closely resembles the Samsung Galaxy S4, but more rounded and less aggressive looking than the Z10.

Original source: BGR

Besides the A10, BlackBerry is also coming out with the 9720, a rehash of the 9700 but updated with new design language and styling. However, BGR described the new features as atrocious and forecast that compared to the Bold 9900, this model would likely be a complete disaster.

The forthcoming release of these two models is seen as the reason why retailers and carriers such as Best Buy and AT&T dropped the price of the Z10 only four months after its release from the launch price of $199.99.

In Best Buy, the $49 price tag comes with a two-year contract, while at AT&T and Verizon, the two-year contract deal has a price of $99.99 or a $100 discount.

BlackBerry posted lower-than-expected profit that Chief Executive Thorsten Heins had to warn shareholders last week at the company's annual stockholders' meeting in Ontario to brace for more losses in Q3 as the company increases its marketing spending to move more phones off the shelves.

Slashing prices is a common strategy put in place by carriers and retailers when certain models lag in sales. Recently, AT&T drastically cut the price of the HTC First, the Facebook phone, to only 99 cents.

Over the weekend, BlackBerry continued to be pounded by bad news as its shares went down on Friday by 1 per cent to $9.24. Since June, the company's share prices had plummeted by almost 30 per cent.

Commenting on the planned releases of the Canadian firm of new phones, BGR pointed out that "not only BlackBerry basically ruin everything made its phones great with the BlackBerry 10 software, but the company seems intent on destroying everything that people loved about its older devices, too."

The Web sited added that the only saving grace of the newer flagship would be lower price, likely at $350, off contract.

All these developments prompted Phil Lavelle, in an opinion piece at TechRadar to suggest for the Canadian firm that it's time to admit defeat and leave the market.

"Now, investors - and voyeuristic tech journalists who can see what's happening - are wondering how many second chances this company needs. Outside the gates of its HQ in the aptly named Waterloo, this battle is being lost," Mr Lavelle wrote.