BlackBerry starts daily free BB10 app giveaways, discounted $0.99 app offers

Canadian handset maker is betting on the apps ecosystem to turn around its fortunes with free and discounts on apps across categories like games, music and productivity for users of its BB10 platform.

"BlackBerry is kicking off the winter festive season with a variety of offers on some of its most popular apps on the BlackBerry World. The offers will roll out throughout the month of December 2013," a BlackBerry spokesperson told PTI.

He added that the offer would be available to users of handsets like Q5, Q10, Z10 and Z30, which run on its BB10 operating system across the world.

The company does not disclose the number of its users.

Under the first offer, BlackBerry will offer one free app each day between December 1 and December 25.

"One free app per day from the likes of Angry Birds, Pacemaker and Monopoly would be available for free download for a 24 hour period," the spokesperson said.

Under the second offer, BlackBerry will launch its 'Hello Winter USD 0.99 Sale', where content will be offered at the discounted price during the entire month of December.

"BlackBerry World has over 1,40,000 apps for BB10 OS. India in particular has been a robust growth market for us from an apps standpoint, so I am confident that we will see tremendous traction with these offers," the spokesperson said.

According to sources, 27-30 per cent of its sales in India is of devices powered by the BB10 platform.

In India, the four BB10-powered devices are priced between Rs. 22,000 and Rs. 44,000.

The Canadian firm has been facing stiff competition from other smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung as sales have declined over the past few months.

It is now placing big bets on apps, including taking its popular messaging service BBM to other operating systems, aimed at raking in additional revenue in the coming months.