BlackBerry Z10 price cut again, now at Rs 17,990

BlackBerry Z10 have been slashed for the second time since its launch in India in February last year. The handset, which runs on its latest BB10 operating system, is now priced at Rs 17,990.

The Z10 was launched at Rs 43,490, but the price was slashed to Rs 29,990 in September.

BlackBerry said the offer is to mark the 10th anniversary of its foray into the Indian market. It starts Tuesday and goes on for the next 60 days.

"BlackBerry has a vast and loyal user base in India and we're keen to provide these consumers with the unique communication experience that BlackBerry 10 offers," BlackBerry India Managing Director Sunil Lalvani said.

This offer will ensure that users are able to enjoy cutting edge experience of a full-touch device combined with a revolutionary operating system - all at an attractive price point, he added.

Once a leader in the smartphone category, the Waterloo (Canada)-headquartered firm has seen a steady decline in market share, losing out to rivals Samsung, Apple and Nokia.

Research firm IDC has said "BlackBerry was the only operating system to realise negative year-over-year change of 77 per cent both for the quarter and for the year (2013) (-40.9 per cent)".

The Canadian company had launched its new operating system BB10 with much fanfare in January last year. However, devices based on the new OS have failed to excite consumers and analysts.

"Its legacy BB7 outpaced BB10 towards the end of the year, definitely not the results that the company had hoped for when it released BB10 in January," IDC said.

For the three months ended November 30, 2013, BlackBerry reported revenues of about $1.2 billion, compared to $1.6 billion in the previous quarter.

The company sold about 1.9 million smartphones in Q3, compared to 3.7 million smartphones in the previous quarter.