NEW DELHI: Smartphone maker BlackBerry has seen its fortunes change drastically since the emergence of iPhones and Android devices. The company, whose market share in India has dropped to just 2% in India, saw poor market response to its top-end Z10 smartphone in the country.

It has, thus, been forced to cut the price of the smartphone by 31%, from Rs 43,490 to Rs 29,990. This limited period offer is valid only for the upcoming festive season, says the Canadian company.

Though the official price of Z10 has been Rs 43,490 since launch, it has been available for less than Rs 30,000 on e-commerce stores for quite some time.

"In keeping with the festive season kicking off, we are making a limited period festive offer. Customers can now purchase BlackBerry Z10 smartphone at just Rs 29,990. This lucrative scheme is in line with our commitment towards this market and will help the brand to reach out to more," BlackBerry said in a statement.

"We continue to leverage festive season with relevant product and services promotions. BlackBerry 10 platform offers a new and unique mobile communication experience and at Rs 29,999 the Z10 model is uniquely positioned to change the way in which our customers view mobile technology," BlackBerry India managing director Sunil Lalvani said.

BlackBerry had launched Z10 and a Qwerty device Q10, powered by its latest BB10 operating system, with a lot of fanfare. However, it failed to elicit much response from users.

In March last year, BlackBerry had announced it was slashing prices of its handsets by up to 26%. It had also reduced the price of its PlayBook before that by more than half to Rs 24,490 for the 64GB version under an offer from the original price Rs 37,990. This was further reduced to Rs 19,990.

Earlier this week, BlackBerry had signed a letter of intent with a Fairfax-led consortium to sell its business for $4.7 billion.

2 days back i heard blackberry has in loss more than 6000 Crores RS.