BlackBerry launched its Classic smartphone Wednesday with a focus on loyal business users and enterprise security but the once iconic Waterloo device maker has also been busy courting the wireless giants key to the phone’s success.

“Carriers were the missing part of the equation for us a year ago,” chief executive John Chen said at the launch in Manhattan’s financial district. “It took us a year to re-establish those links (and) nearly all major carriers around the world are starting to engage with us.

“The good news is that the conversation has changed about BlackBerry” said the former Sybase Inc. CEO brought on board 13 months ago to turn BlackBerry around.

He added in an interview with Bloomberg TV that BlackBerry would welcome a relationship with U.S. carrier T-Mobile after a spat that had its roots in its perceived lack of success in selling BlackBerry handsets.

AT&T said it will be offering the Classic on its full LTE network, noting that it was the first U.S. carrier to offer a BlackBerry in the U.S. back in 1999. Verizon said it will carry the device beginning in early 2015, while BlackBerry said the Classic will be available from Canadian carriers Bell, Rogers and Telus.

BlackBerry said North American customers can also purchase the device online through Amazon.com and BlackBerry.com.

“Typically, the carrier stores offer at least one BlackBerry and the Passport has been sold out for weeks,” Rob Enderle, principal analyst of the Enderle Group, said in an email.

“You’d certainly argue that if they were going to carry one, the Classic likely would be the best bet because it addresses the needs of the current installed base.

“The Classic is really the phone BlackBerry should have led with because it is closest to what current BlackBerry users actually wanted,” he said. “Had they come up with this earlier, they likely could have held a substantially larger portion of their base than they did.”

But analysts noted that BlackBerry has been shifting to more of a software model and as such phones are less critical to its future.

“It’s going to be a niche product based around enterprise, based around security and pockets of the world where there are still strengths. The future of this company is not the hardware,” said BGC’s Colin Gillis.

Chen told the New York audience that the Classic is a response to requests from some of its most steadfast customers including leaders of Fortune 500 companies.

“A lot of them pulled out their BlackBerry . . . and told me ‘Don’t mess around with this thing. Don’t mess around with the keyboard, don’t mess around with the track pad.’ ”

The Classic looks and functions like an updated version of the Bold 9900, which became the company’s bestselling device when it was released in 2011.

It restores familiar features of older BlackBerrys including a “belt” of physical keys placed below the screen that included menu buttons and a small trackpad. It also features a larger display, faster browsing and improved battery life.

Convincing smartphone users that the Classic is anything but a has-been concept will be the biggest challenge, said Max Wolff, chief economist at Manhattan Venture Partners.

“There’s no real razzle-dazzle there, to say the least,” Wolff told The Canadian Press.

“The problem is they’re fighting a universal market perception that their devices are kind of washed out.”

Chen said he sees potential for the Classic to catch on with smartphone users who haven’t warmed to the growing number of touchscreen phones.

BlackBerry, meanwhile, also rolled out apps and services bundles for enterprise users that will be available on the Classic.

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The secure productivity bundle features BlackBerry’s authentication service and BlackBerry Blend remote PC-tablet data access, along with customer support.

The enterprise communicator bundle features the BBM Meetings cross-platform conferencing app and BBM Protected messaging security.

BlackBerry is charging $6 per user per month for the secure productivity bundle, and $12 for the enterprise communicator bundle, to enterprise customers with BES and BB10 phones.

BlackBerry shares rose 47 cents in New York to $9.97.

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