“KEYone is the world’s most secure Android phone”

Hardip Singh, Executive Director, Optiemus Infracom, the licensee of Blackberry speaks about KEYone and the iconic brand’s future plans in India

Hardip Singh, Executive Director, Optiemus Infracom and Alex Thurber, Senior VP, Global Device Sales, BlackBerry Inc

Can you elaborate on the BlackBerry KEYone Limited Edition Black launched recently in India?
BlackBerry KEYone LIMITED EDITION BLACK is the first BlackBerry branded device manufactured by Optiemus Infracom under the licensing agreement signed in February this year. The device offers the best of BlackBerry Limited’s software and security
with Optiemus Infracom’s commitment to deliver high-quality, reliable smartphones to customers in the country.
The BlackBerry KEYone LIMITED EDITION BLACK is available from August 8th,exclusively on Amazon India. American Express is offering up to 4,000 bonus points, on purchase of the device, to its credit card members. On buying Blackberry KEYone LIMITED EDITION BLACK, Vodafone customers will get up to 75 GB of additional data over a period of three months. This offer is valid until 30th September 2017.

What are the product USPs in terms of design and
specifications?
BlackBerry KEYone LIMITED EDITION BLACK has been distinctly designed for Indian customers to offer Dual SIM capability – and will also be available in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. It is equipped with a metallic black frame and soft touch textured back. This new
BlackBerry smartphone is built to offer the best in durability with an impressive design. Featuring a 4.5-inch scratch resistant display (1620×1080 resolution / 434 PPI 3:2 aspect ratio) with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 offering greater scratch resistance, it combines a touch display with a physical keyboard to give users more useable space for typing than a typical 5.5-inch all-touch smartphone. The device comes with a 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM (expandable upto 2TB).

What are the inside specifications of this device?
The device is powered with a Snapdragon 625 2GHz Octacore processor. It includes Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology, making it possible for the 3505 mAh battery, the largest ever in a BlackBerry device, to receive up to 50 percent charge in roughly 36 minutes that will last for roughly two days. And for when you only have a few moments to grab a fast charge, BlackBerry’s Boost can turbo charge the battery to get the most charge with the limited available time.
The device is engineered to deliver professional looking photos with an 8MP front facing camera and a wide angle lens and a 12MP auto-focus rear camera. With a large pixel size (1.55μm) and Phase Detect Auto Focus, moments captured on the BlackBerry KEYone LIMITED EDITION BLACK will be ultra-crisp and clear. Additionally, for video conference or streaming, it includes an 8MP front camera with fixed focus and 84-degree wide angle lens.

What are the uniqueness of the product in terms of
security and convenience?
BlackBerry KEYone, LIMITED EDITION BLACK, comes with the legendary security features that BlackBerry is known for. The smartphone offers the most secure Android smartphone experience. It comes pre-loaded with DTEK by BlackBerry, enables users to automatically monitor their OS and apps to know when their privacy could be at risk and to take action to improve it. The DTEK app also tracks applications and notifies when someone is: taking pictures or videos without the user’s knowledge, turning the microphone on, sending a text message, or accessing the contacts or location.
The device runs on Android 7.1 – giving users access to the entire Google Play store and apps. It comes loaded with BlackBerry Hub a unified messaging inbox which combines emails, texts and messages from social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, BBM, Whatsapp, Instagram and others. Another benefit of BlackBerry Hub, is the ability to manage multiple email accounts without switching between apps, with support for Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Microsoft Exchange accounts, and many other IMAP and POP3 email providers.

What are the other categories to be launched? What is the specific GTM strategy behind each category of product?
We signed the Blackberry licensing agreement in February this year. Under this agreement we have to design, manufacture, market, sell and service all the blackberry branded devices in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Under this agreement, BlackBerry KEYone LIMITED EDITION BLACK is the first device we launched. We have a very strong pipeline of products coming in the next 6-12 months. We cannot share the names and numbers. But we will be catering to various categories from youth to professionals.

How is Optiemus looking at re-launching or reestablishing
the Blackberry brand?
I do not agree we are re-launching or re-establishing the Blackberry brand. They say brands are not made in store shelves, but in the hearts of the people. The data we have collated from all the operators put together, we have more than one million active Blackberry users in India today. The brand is very much alive and kicking in the hearts of the people though it is not available in the shelves. We have to bring it to the fore. We will have marketing promotion plans through digital, social, TV and reach out to all segments

How is the security and convenience aspect a plus point for the device?
Mobile is not just communications device, but for all professional and personal communications on phone. Your wallet is on your phone. Your social media platform is on your phone. Your banking transactions are on phone. So you need to keep the data not just secure but private. So the relevance of a Blackberry is even more now. Security and privacy is in blackberry’s DNA. Privacy and convenience are the critical components. Need to have a phone productive, convenient, secure and private. This is the world’s most secure Android phone. Everyone now is a potential blackberry user.

Why is the KEYOne called a limited edition?
The KEYOne is only available in India and Nepal and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh . That is why it is called the limited edition, and not because it is available in limited numbers. Black is because of the black metallic body. It will come in both with or without a QWERTY keypad.

How are you conforming to Make in India initiatives?
We are manufacturing all our devices in the Noida factory. In fact, we are taking the Make in India initiative to a new level. We are also going to be designing the phones in India. Everything is in-house working closely with Blackberry.

What will be the distribution model?
Currently this phone is available only on the Amazon platform. Going forward this and all our future devices to be launched in the next 6-12 months will be available offline too. There are service centers across the country and as we keep on increasing the numbers, we will ramp up the number of service centers.