Research In Motion may not have participated in CES this week, but it did not stop the beleaguered smartphone maker from Waterloo, Ont. from making news with the release of a luxury Blackberry model made by Porsche Design.
Porsche Design call themselves a luxury brand and has a focus on technically inspired products. The brand was founded in 1972 by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche. The products are designed in the Porsche Design Studio in Zell am See, Austria.
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The new Blackberry comes with a hefty price tag of $2,050 and is available in Canada at the Porsche Design Toronto store on that city’s Mink Mile (Bloor St.).
Called the P’9981 smartphone; it features a completely black design the brand “Porsche Design” on top of the BlackBerry.
The P’9981 Blackberry consists of a stainless steel frame encased in black plastic with a hand-wrapped leather backing. The smartphone also includes a special black QWERTY keyboard and a touch-screen display.
According to the designers, the P’9981 has a customized Porsche Design user interface and an exclusive, premium BlackBerry-Messenger-PIN.
Juergen Gessler, CEO of the Porsche Design Group, said since the beginning, the Porsche Design brand has been identified with the colour black. The first product was a completely black watch. It was a revolutionary product and was a sensation all over the world. As is typical of Porsche Design, the colour black had a functional significance. The “Chronograph I” was inspired by the non-reflective design of racing car controls, with everything in matte black apart from the instruments. The aim was to ensure a clear and easy-to-read display. The Porsche Design P’9981 Blackberry follows this tradition.
In May 2012, the original Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry was selected as the “Smartphone of the Year 2012 by a judging panel at the Plus X Awards.
The Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone is based on a 1.2 GHz processor and HD video recording, as well as high-resolution 24-bit graphics and modern sensors compatible with new Augmented Reality applications. The P’9981 also has 8GB of internal memory and a 16GB micro SD card. The memory can be expanded up to a total of 40GB. The BlackBerry 7.1 operating system of the Porsche Design P’9981 Blackberry incorporates a latest-generation browser. The Smartphone also features Liquid Graphics technology for high-resolution graphic displays.
