The Blackberry Passport, centre, claims to be all about productivity. BlackBerry will sell the new handset for $US599 ($677) in the US without a mobile plan, undercutting the iPhone 6, which went on sale last week for $US649 ($745). The iPhone 6 costs $869 in Australia. Australian release plans are yet to be detailed, although currently Blackberry holds only 0.5 per cent of the Australian smartphone market, compared to 1.6 per cent in the US. BlackBerry is trying to win back business users as its market is shrinking because more employees are opting to bring their own device to work, said Ehud Gelblum, an analyst at Citigroup. He estimated the number of employer-provided phones bought each quarter in the US to be around 1 to 1.5 million, down from about 3 million four years ago.

The latest Australian mobile operating system market shares from Kantar Worldpanel and ComTech's barometer. "We therefore believe the success of the device business is once again in the hands of BlackBerry's consumer fans, counter to CEO Chen's enterprise first strategy," Gelblum wrote in a note to clients. There's stiff competition to win over consumers these days. Apple sold a record of more than 10 million iPhones the first weekend its two new versions hit stores sporting displays of 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches. On its company blog, BlackBerry has been touting the benefits of the Passport's square screen and new keyboard for professional customers: better views of Excel spreadsheets on a wider screen, higher resolution to examine X-ray images, and BlackBerry Assistant to get stuff done while you're driving. "BlackBerry's CEO's attempts to convince Enterprise CEOs and CIOs to give BlackBerry a second chance is bearing some positive results," Mark Sue, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note yesterday. "The improvements in the balance sheet and restructuring in the business is providing the challenged company much needed time to turn things around."

Since taking the helm, Chen has outsourced manufacturing to Foxconn Technology Group and focused BlackBerry's efforts on selling device management and messaging software to security-conscious companies and governments. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company's software is now available on iPhones and Android devices. It's all part of Chen's plan to reach break-even cash flow by the end of this fiscal year and return to profitability during the year that will end in March 2016. The company isn't there yet, and analysts are projecting a loss of 15 cents a share, excluding one-time items, for the quarter than ended August 31. Apple is moving into business services, too. The tech giant announced a partnership with IBM in July to get more iPhones and iPads into businesses and expand IBM's mobile services. Bloomberg with Fairfax Media