BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins has revealed plans to expand the Canadian firm's smartphone portfolio, to incorporate lower-end devices, in a bid to keep up with the likes of Samsung and Apple.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Heins said that BlackBerry would need to release more new devices than the two it has announced so far.
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"In order to stay relevant, we have to build a portfolio," he said.
"We will bring it out at the moment when we can expect the biggest market attention for these products," he added.
The portfolio will have three tiers, smartphones for high-end users, and those that are set at mid and entry level prices.
The lower priced models will also use the BlackBerry 10 operating system but will be designed for emerging markets such as India and Indonesia. The strategy is designed to encourage loyal users within those countries to switch to its new operating system over time.
The old BlackBerry operating system will still be used in the company's plans to release another batch of BlackBerry 7 models, in specific countries - particularly those where buying a low-cost smartphone is the only viable option for a consumer.
"We want to give them a good BlackBerry experience. So this is where probably another BlackBerry 7 product in that range makes a lot of sense," he said.
"We're not excluding those markets from BlackBerry 10 because of us wanting to sell BlackBerry 7. You will see both in coexistence for a while in those markets," he added.
There has been talk of Apple releasing a low-cost option to sit alongside its projected iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 releases, and BlackBerry is also looking to get a foothold in that market to increase its overall market share.
The rollout of new smartphones is expected between September and November this year, with mid-tier options for the touchscreen and keypad phones the first to go on sale.
"Then we are working on something exciting for the holiday season. We will be continuing to develop a portfolio also that covers the entry-level segment," Heins said.
BlackBerry has struggled recently, with market research company Kantar finding that the firm's share of the UK market fell from 16.8 per cent to 5.1 per cent between February 2012 and February 2013. As its latest smartphones and new operating system were only released in January, the Canadian firm could yet catch up and increase its market share this year.
But while it has fared reasonably well in the UK with a million sales, it endured a "tepid" US launch that saw its shares fall two days running and prompted investment firm Goldman Sachs to downgrade its rating for the Canadian firm.
However, the company released its fourth quarter results for fiscal year 2013 last week, beating analysts' expectations. It achieved revenue of $2.7bn with a profit of $98m (£65m), but this is still two per cent less than the previous quarter, and a 36 per cent fall year on year.
