The reports about a low cost BlackBerry emerged after Marvell, RIM’s main processor supplier, reported weak results last week. The chipmaker’s CEO Sehat Sutardja said that one factor behind lower revenues and profits was the switch of one of the company’s biggest customers to cheaper handsets. That customer was widely assumed to be RIM.

This would see the company seeking to boost its flagging market share with a wider range of devices, increasing its nascent efforts in the prepaid sector and targeting rising smartphone adoption in emerging economies. Apple is also rumored to be considering a similar move, and a cutdown iPhone. Both want to fight against the more broad-based Android, which recently overtook BlackBerry OS as the most used smartphone platform.

bron:Rethink Wireless