Canadian smartphone maker Blackberry will be launching its latest smart phone Passport sometime in September this year. According to a Cnet report by Marguerite Reardon, the launch will be held in London. The report quotes the company's CEO John Chen regarding this.

Benefit of Square Screen

The BlackBerry blog claims that the new 4.5-inch display in Passport phone will be ideal for professionals. Blackberry is hopeful that the square screen and physical keyboard will be liked by professionals who want to perform tasks like developing spreadsheets or doing stock trading.

Feature Highlights

The official blog of BlackBerry informs that the Passport will have a square 4.5-inch full HD screen, with a three-row keyboard underneath. It claims that the device will have ample screen area as a 5-inch smartphone will be displaying 66-characters in a row compared to 40 on a rectangular smartphone.

The device will also offer access to Android apps as part of the BlackBerry 10.3 operating system update.

Beaten by Competition

BlackBerry, facing the heat of competition from Apple and Samsung had lost substantial ground in the market. In the last quarter the company sold 1.6 million smartphones and 1.3 million in the previous quarter. This is a sharp decline from the 6.8 million devices it sold during the same quarter last year.

Repositioning

The launch of Passport will also be an attempt by Blackberry to reposition itself in the smartphone market. BlackBerry has hired a new chief executive John Chen to hasten the refocusing towards business customers than general consumers.

The way BlackBerry is pitching Passport to business customers makes it evident. The BlackBerry blog post is very vocal how architects can look at designs and schematics, healthcare workers can view X-rays, and traders can watch trading platforms if they have Passport as their smartphone.