BlackBerry to launch 5-inch phablet by year-end: Report

As BlackBerry gears to make its Q10 smartphone available across the world, there are fresh rumours suggesting the company is working on a 5-inch phablet running on the recently launched BlackBerry 10 operating system.

Barron's blog is quoting Jefferies analyst Peter Misek, who states that BlackBerry will be launching 2-3 new smartphones this year based on BlackBerry 10 OS (Review). These smartphones will supposedly include a mid-range touch smartphone, a mid-range QWERTY smartphone and a 5-inch phablet. Misek further goes on to state that the 5-inch phablet will look like the company's current flagship Z10.

Even in the past there have been rumours regarding BlackBerry developing a 5-inch phablet device and even a tablet to succeed the BlackBerry PlayBook. However, these rumours were later refuted as April Fool's pranks.

BlackBerry had launched its Z10 (Review | Pictures) smartphone along with a brand new BlackBerry 10 operating system on January 30, 2013. This smartphone started retailing in various markets in the month of February. The company had announced in the fag-end of March that it had managed to sell about 1 million of the new Z10 devices during the fourth quarter, which ended on March 2, 2013. BlackBerry also indicated in the same period it had managed to ship roughly 6 million smartphones.

The company is all set to start retailing its flagship QWERTY smartphone BlackBerry Q10 (Pictures) in Canada from April 30.

In the past month, BlackBerry CEO and President, Thorsten Heins, had indicated that the company is developing a new exciting flagship smartphone, which will be launched ahead of the holiday season. However, no further details regarding this smartphone are available as of now. Heins had also mentioned that the company plans to launch as many as five new BlackBerry 10 devices in 2013, including the BlackBerry Q10. As per previous rumours, one of these smartphones will come with a quad-core processor.