BlackBerry Z10 price slashed ahead of festive season to Rs 29,990

BlackBerry has announced a steep cut in the price of its flagship BB10 device, the Z10, to Rs 29,990.

The device will be available at 31 per cent less price for a limited period only, as part of the company's plans for the upcoming festive season.

The Z10 was launched January for Rs 43,490. It was retailing for about Rs 30,000 on e-commerce stores.

"In keeping with the festive season kicking off, we are making a limited period festive offer. Customers can now purchase BlackBerry Z10 smartphone at just Rs 29,990. This lucrative scheme is in line with our commitment towards this market and will help the brand to reach out to more," BlackBerry said in a statement.

The struggling handset maker had launched the Z10 and a QWERTY counterpart Q10, both powered by its latest BB10 operating system, with a lot of fanfare. However, the devices failed to elicit much response from users.

"We continue to leverage festive season with relevant product and services promotions. BlackBerry 10 platform offers a new and unique mobile communication experience and at Rs 29,999 (rpt) Rs 29,999 the Z10 model is uniquely positioned to change the way in which our customers view mobile technology," BlackBerry India managing director Sunil Lalvani said.

In March last year, BlackBerry had announced slashing of prices of its handsets by up to 26 per cent.

Before that, it had also reduced the price of its PlayBook by more than half, to Rs 24,490 for the 64GB version, under an offer from the original price Rs 37,990. This was further reduced to Rs 19,990.

Earlier this week, BlackBerry signed a letter of intent with a Fairfax-led consortium to sell its business for $4.7 billion.

With inputs from PTI