BlackBerry hedges its bets at Live 2013

The only hardware announcement made during this morning's BlackBerry Live keynote address was for the Q5, a low-end QWERTY smartphone destined for emerging markets. The Q5 takes the place of the old Curve — it gives BlackBerry an entry-level device that can be sold at a lower price point than its premium line.

The Q5 looks very similar to the Q10, its bigger brother on the BlackBerry food chain, as it has a full QWERTY keyboard and square display. The display is the same 720 x 720 pixel resolution as the Q10, but instead of an AMOLED panel, it uses an LCD unit. In our brief time with it, we didn't notice any problems with the LCD, though it's certain that it has a lower cost than the AMOLED version.

BlackBerry's BBM service was one of the earliest popular alternatives to text messaging, but it's become less vital amidst competition from Apple's iMessage and a variety of third-party apps. Today, BlackBerry has updated it with Channels, a quasi-social media platform. Any user can create a Channel, after which others can "follow" them to receive updates. It appears to be aimed at brands and celebrities: a public figure can send news or status updates to users, who can then like or comment on them. Traditional one-on-one communication is also possible, but only if the Channel owner initiates a chat.

Unlike many new features, Channels isn't limited to the latest software; it's available in beta on everything from BlackBerry 5 to BlackBerry 10. BlackBerry has also just announced that it's moving BBM onto Android and iOS, something that will vastly expand the reach of this new feature.

BlackBerry has just announced that its hugely popular BBM messaging service is going multi-platform: it will be released for Android and iOS as a free app this summer. BBM will support iOS hardware running iOS 6 and above; the Android version will be compatible with version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and above. "It's time to bring BBM to a greater audience," CEO Thorsten Heins said in announcing the expansion, "no matter what mobile device they carry."

Though it's long been considered one of BlackBerry's strongest exclusive offerings, Heins said that his company aims to deliver a "fully featured" BBM experience on rival smartphone operating systems. "We're starting with messaging and groups, but we'll bring voice, screen share, and of course, channels later on," he said.

BlackBerry has announced a new keyboard-equipped BlackBerry 10 phone: the Q5, designed for emerging markets. The phone has a 3.1-inch touchscreen atop a keyboard, just like the presumably higher-end Q10 that launched earlier this spring. Unlike the more sober Z10 or Q10 phones, though, the Q5 will come in red, white, black, and pink. It's set to launch in parts of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America starting in July. No price has been given, but this phone appears to be aimed at the same market as the popular Curve, which was meant for a broader base than BlackBerry's more expensive phones.

Unsurprisingly, we also know relatively little about the phone's specs. In his keynote speech, CEO Thorsten Heins promoted BlackBerry's software platform and the idea of a purely mobile computing experience, touting the Q5 for developing countries where smartphone networks are more ubiquitous than traditional internet connections. While its US market share has plummeted, BlackBerry maintains a strong user base in countries like India and Indonesia.