BlackBerry gets flirty with QWERTY IP, launches $275 Leap

BlackBerry's CEO told The Register today that everything in the company’s IP portfolio is up for grabs, including hardware IP for BlackBerry’s hallmark QWERTY keyboards. “I’m not a big believer in holding on to all your secret sauces,” John Chen told us. “We have 53 per cent of staff employed in IP creation and engineering and …

[Bronek Kozicki]

Classic is marred by the slow speed of the old processor

Wait, what? I never noticed that. Perhaps I run too few Android apps.

[Anonymous Coward]

Everything for sale

You want Kitchen sink?? Office Chairs?? Shirt off my back??

[Waspy]

Slightly confused...

Chen seems to be making all the right moves, which is wonderful to see. Still slightly confused as to who the Leap is aimed at though, most 'young career builders' I know (I am guessing they are in the 21-34 age range) think BlackBerry is out of business. No joke. They need to raise their profile with this demographic before they start trying to flog phones to them, especially as most phone shops don't even offer BB10 handsets on contract anymore.

[Anonymous Coward]

HURRY, HURRY! Everything must go. Before we do.

[James 51]

I have a Q10 which has the same CPU. Only problem it has been slow is a few framerate issues running some Android games.

[Levente Szileszky]

Dual Curve seems like a match made in heaven...

...for keyboard lovers who want more than Passport-sized screens - but what's up with the resolution? Passport is 1440x1440, 4x times more pixels than Q10's 720x720, the Z30 is 1280x720 so this Dual Cruve supposed to be 2560x1440, right... RIGHT? :)

Actually it would make sense, to debut a new slider with top-of-the-line screen, for all the fanbase + press coverage - but it won't be a medium-priced unit, for sure.

[Jim84]

Dual curve

Not to sure about the dual curve, just seems like another gimmick from Samsung in their "throw everything against the wall and see what sticks" strategy (still it worked a treat with phablets).

But a querty slider looks pretty tasty. The only thing I am worried about is that the keyboard will be horribly compromised like the keyboard on the old torches.

[I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects]

If this is a silly question

I apologise... But how old are the secret sauces?

A few days before the sell by date is usually a good time to swallow stuff quickly and cheaply. It's just that I couldn't read any small print or even see the label. (And yes, I know that if I have to ask...)

[Anonymous Coward]

Too late

You're about 5 years too late with this move... People have gotten used to shitty email/contacts/calendar on Android and iOS. And most companies have dumped or have plans to dump BES already. This would have brilliant if you had done it right out of the gate... now it's just... *yawn*.

[Anonymous Coward]

Selling off patents?

I guess while they know they have a lot of valuable smartphone patents the only companies worth suing are Apple and Samsung, who both hold a lot of patents related to touch screen phones where Blackberry was MIA for years so at best such a battle would be a draw.

They are probably hoping on a smaller player who wants to compete on their level in a future IP battle like Xiaomi will be interested.