BlackBerry Q10 launched in India, priced at Rs 44,990

BlackBerry announced the launch of its Q10 model in the Indian market, at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday. After the BlackBerry Z10, it is the second smartphone to run the new operating system, OS 10.

However, unlike the Z10 which requires typing on a touch-screen, the Q10 goes back to the familiar BlackBerry keyboard.

"It gives customers the assurance of typing on a classic BlackBerry keyboard, which combines with other features to offer them a powerful and unique mobile computing experience," says Sunil Lalvani, Managing Director, BlackBerry India.

This much publicised model sports a 3.1 inch capacitive touch display with 720 x 720p resolution together with an ergonomically designed keyboard. It is powered by a 1.5GHz dual core processor paired with 2GB RAM. There is a 8MP rear camera and a 2MP front facing camera. The device has 16GB internal storage, a microSD card slot and a 2100 mAh battery.

The highlight of the BB OS 10 is its swipe and peek interface, BlackBerry Hub, where all the conversations including emails, messenger texts, calls and messages are stored and allows real time use of eight applications simultaneously.

The BlackBerry App World currently has 120,000 apps of which 12 per cent apps originated in India.

The Q10 was launched in Canada - where BlackBerry is headquartered - last month.

In India it will be available for Rs 44,990. This means its cost is even higher than the launch price of the BlackBerry Z10, which entered the Indian market at Rs 43,490.

According to BlackBerry officials, its products have 76 million users worldwide, of which 61 million use BlackBerry Messenger.