Budget BlackBerry 10 Smartphone Launch a Dead-Cert for 2013

A budget, affordable or downright cheap BlackBerry 10 Smartphone is an absolute must and a guaranteed for the near future – you can take that one to the bank.

Over the past few days, what claims to be an official leak courtesy of BlackBerry Empire shows what it calls the Mini Q10, which for all intents and purposes would be the first affordable BlackBerry 10 handset – one set to launch later this year. And while the leak itself is lacking in both fine detail and general authority,the concept as a whole is probably one of the most concrete in recent history…and here’s why.

As it stands, Apple’s iPhone is the only Smartphone in the history of the market that has managed to get it right for so long by offering just a single top-tier price structure, effectively alienating anyone not willing to pay top-dollar. The iPhone crowd has always been seen as something of a ‘unique’ crowd – which you can define as you will – but for the rest of the Android, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry consumer base, there have been phones on off from buttons to billions…or near enough.

As far as the BlackBerry 10 range goes therefore, for the company to limit its options only to the very top-end of the market with devices like the Z10 and the Q10 – both of which are priced higher than the iPhone 5 – would frankly be tantamount to business suicide. Once the dust has settled and the new flagship have done their business, there are tens of millions of floating voters and lower-range spenders out there dying to find out what BlackBerry 10 is all about, just as long as they don’t have to pay $800 for the privilege.
Or $600, or even $500 for that matter.
So, what BlackBerry needs and of course already knows it needs is a cheap, unlocked BlackBerry 10 Smartphone that delivers the goods in a modes enough way to win over the mainstream masses. And if rumors as to the so-called BlackBerry Q10 Mini pan out, this is exactly what they’re lining up for a release date later this year.
Exactly what it will deliver in terms of specs and features is anyone’s guess, but if Heins and Co manage to get the BlackBerry Q10 Mini primed and ready for a pre-Christmas release date, the holiday stocking-stuffer sales alone could catapult the OS to places the Z10 and Q10 alone never could.