Kuala Lumpur: Celcom Axiata Bhd has teamed up with BlackBerry to launch the latest smartphone, Blackberry Classic, under Celcom’s First Plan.

“The new phone with the package is retailed at RM1,588 and is available at all Celcom Blue Cube and Celcom Xclusive outlets beginning Wednesday.

“Currently, we have about 200,000 Celcom-Blackberry customers from two million post-paid customers and we hope to get more users,” said Celcom chief marketing officer, Zalman Aefendy Zainal Abidin, at the launch of the phone here Wednesday.

Blackberry senior director Asia Pacific product management, Damian Tay, said the smartphone was targeted at productivity-driven business professionals who wanted a device with mobile tools without sacrificing style or portability.

“The new BlackBerry Classic features a large square touch screen and new QWERTY touch-enabled keyboard.

“The Classic is an upgrade from the BlackBerry Bold 9900 with 50 per cent longer battery life, three times faster browser, 60 per cent more screen space and a greater variety of BlackBerry World applications,” he said