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Quad-core BlackBerry Z50 and Q30 smartphones to launch late 2014

There’s no denying that Canadian firm BlackBerry is going through a tough patch of late – it just sacked its CEO after less than two years and has seen several buyout plans fail in recent months – but that doesn’t mean to say that it doesn’t have plans to launch new phones in the future.

At present the Z30 is the company’s flagship all-touch phone and the Q10 is the top dog for those who want touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard. That’s set to change late next year when two phones known as the Z50 and Q30 come along.

Reports from CTech suggest that the company has two new top-of-the-range phones planned to launch somewhere between July and September of next year, with the former toting a powerful quad-core processor. We’re also told that the Z50 will feature a 5.2-inch Full HD display, which is a tad larger than the current Z30 and its 5-inch display.

For physical keyboard lovers, the BlackBerry Q30 will replace the Q10, which was one of BlackBerry’s two launch devices for BlackBerry 10. Very little is known about this phone at the moment, though we’re hearing that it will arrive before the Z50, during Q2, which is between April and June. The Z50 will arrive later, in Q3.

Whilst it’s still early days for these rumours, many sites and sources have been talking of new phones in the works at BlackBerry HQ. The company recently announced plans to cut back its portfolio of mobile devices from 6 to 4, going with two ‘high end’ models and two more affordable options. At present the high end is represented by the Z30 and Q10 (and technically the Z10, which is still hanging around), so we’re likely to see the Z50 and Q30 become their immediate successors.

Outside of smartphones, BlackBerry has just launched BBM for Wi-Fi only iPads, taking the popular chat app to yet another platform. It’s now available on all iPads, iPod Touches and iPhones as well as Android and of course, BlackBerry.