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In what is being dubbed a last-ditch attempt by BlackBerry to crawl back market share from its rivals, the Canadian firm has officially launched its Passport phone.

After being unveiled at an event in June, chief executive John Chen has been teasing the square phone's features ever since.

And at a launch event earlier today, BlackBerry revealed that the 4.5-inch device is now available in the UK, US, France, Germany, and Canada - and will run Android apps from the Amazon Appstore.

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At today's launch event, BlackBerry revealed that its 4.5-inch Passport phone (pictured) is now available in the UK, US, France, Germany, and Canada - and will run Android apps from the Amazon Appstore. Prices are £529 in the UK, $599 in the US, 649 in France and Germany, and $699 in Canada

Prices in the various regions are £529 in the UK, $599 in the US, €649 in France and Germany, and $699 in Canada, when bought from ShopBlackBerry.com.

The BlackBerry Passport will also be available through Amazon.com, and the retailer will be announcing its pricing 'soon'. 

'As we set out to design BlackBerry Passport, we were guided by a simple yet challenging idea - to set aside the limitations of traditional design and to instead simply build a device that fundamentally changes the way business professionals get work done on their smartphone,' said Mr Chen.

'The BlackBerry Passport was created to drive productivity and to break through the sea of rectangular-screen, all-touch devices.'

In addition to the large, 1440x1440 pixel square screen, the device has a 3450 mAH battery which BlackBerry claims will last up to 30 hours. 

It has a quad-core 2.2 GHZ Processor, 3GB RAM as well as a 13MP rear camera, and 32GB memory.

The touchscreen is accompanied by a physical keyboard, and the Passport runs BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3.

This software features BlackBerry Blend, which lets users BlackBerry content to other devices including PCs and Android phones, as well as the Amazon Appstore.

This means that Android apps will run on the device, but only those available from the Amazon store, installed on the BlackBerry device.

The device wil be available in more than 30 countries around the world, including the Middle East, France, India, Singapore, Austria, Germany, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, Vietnam, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, Venezuela, Philippines, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Romania, and Colombia.

Earlier this week, Mr Chen told the Wall Street Journal that the price of the flagship device should be in the region of $799, but his firm dropped the price to 'get the market interested.'

The BlackBerry Passport (pictured centre) has a full HD 4.5-inch square screen and shows 60 characters of text, compared to 40 on a rectangular 5-inch device (Samsung's Galaxy S5 5.1-inch device is pictured right). Apple's iPhone 4S is pictured left to show scale. There is also a 13MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera

Other specifications of the Passport (pictured) include a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage plus expandable storage via microSD card up to 64GB

By comparison, Apple's latest iPhone 6 handset starts at £539 ($649), while the iPhone 6 Plus costs £789 ($749) - both are also available on two-year contracts.

Samsung's Galaxy S5 costs around £580 ($650), and the South Korean firm is yet to release price details for its Galaxy Note Edge.

The BlackBerry Passport is the first time the firm has launched a new device, globally, since its BlackBerry 10 devices in 2013.

Rob Kerr, mobiles expert at uSwitch.com, said: 'This latest handset launch shows that it's back to business for BlackBerry - and what a smart move that is.

'After a year away from the UK market, a return to Blighty with a keyboard-based smartphone is a move that plays to BlackBerry's strengths, and shows it has finally understood what people liked about its early phones.

'In a twist, Amazon's Android AppStore comes preloaded, showing either the versatility of the OS - or that the BlackBerry app store needs help.'

BlackBerry's 'fastest, most advanced' handset promo, Sept. '13

The Passport combines a large touchscreen with a physical keyboard. BlackBerry chief executive John Chen first revealed the square phone (pictured) during the Canadian company's annual general meeting in June

BLACKBERRY TEAMS UP WITH AMAZON

In June, BlackBerry announced it was offering 240,000 Android apps to its smartphone users in a surprise deal with Amazon.

The deal lets BlackBerry add a selection of consumer apps to its devices, and to focus on developing enterprise and productivity applications.

For example, BlackBerry customers will be able to access popular Android apps such as Groupon, Netflix, Pinterest, Candy Crush Saga and Minecraft.

The apps will be available on BlackBerry 10 devices from autumn, when the company rolls out the BlackBerry 10.3 operating system, the statement said.

While Ben Wood, Chief of Research, CCS Insight added: 'This is definitely a marmite product – based on our experience so far people either love the design or are a little perplexed by the size and shape.

'One thing is certain – it's a distinctive product that will definitely stand out from the monotonous stream of similar looking touchscreen smartphones that currently characterise the market.

'After 18 months of disruption the strategy that new CEO John Chen has laid out seems to be taking hold. The business has stabilised and the Passport device is a critical milestone in efforts to rebuild the business.'

The Passport was first revealed in June by BlackBerry boss John Chen during the company's quarterly earnings report.

The project was previously known as Windermere, and Mr Chen said at the time that Passport would be officially announced at an event in London in September.

Further details were unveiled by Matt Young on the Inside BlackBerry blog in July: 'Consider how IMAX movies begin with the screens set to a more traditional 16:9 aspect ratio projection for conventional movie trailers, before expanding to their true dimensions.

'The Passport is like the IMAX of productivity, and you don't have to sacrifice screen real estate, vertically or horizontally.'

Academic research has shown that the optimal number of characters on a line in a book is 66 characters.

Most rectangular smartphones show approximately 40 characters per line, while the BlackBerry Passport is said to show 60 characters.

The Passport (right) was unveiled alongside Blackberry's touchscreen phone the Z3 (left), and the Classic (centre) in a slide, earlier this year. It is unclear how comfortable the phone will be to hold, when making a call for example

This makes the Passport 'the ideal device for reading e-books, viewing documents and browsing the web.'

It also solves the problem of having to switch between landscape and portrait mode when taking a photo or filming a video.

'We've been living in a rectangular world for quite some time and know it's a great ergonomic design that drives content, media consumption and quick communications,' continued Mr Young.

'However, the rectangle has become a defacto approach to smartphone design, perhaps limiting innovations.

'Just as a passport is the universal symbol of mobility and was the inspiration for the size and form factor of this device, your BlackBerry Passport becomes your ticket to open new doors of opportunity.'

It is unclear how comfortable the phone will be to hold, when making a call for example, and BlackBerry has not released any details about the price.

The blog post did, however, position the device more towards businesses than consumers.

For example, it stated architects and mortgage brokers could use it to look at full designs and schematics on the go. While medical staff could view X-rays and medical documents in the office with a patient

Mr Young concluded: 'The BlackBerry Passport will take you to new places on the best business trip you've ever had. We want you to imagine the possibilities.'

In June, BlackBerry announced it was offering 240,000 Android apps to its smartphone users in a surprise deal with Amazon. The deal lets BlackBerry add a selection of consumer apps to its devices, and to focus on developing enterprise and productivity applications. BlackBerry Bold 9900 is pictured

The move is the latest by the smartphone pioneer to streamline its focus as it attempts to reinvent itself under new chief executive John Chen.

BlackBerry phones have recently lost ground to Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy devices.

Chen wants to remain a competitor in the smartphone segment, but is focused on making BlackBerry a dominant force in machine-to-machine communications.

The company's QNX software already is a mainstay in the automobile industry, powering electronic and other systems in a wide range of cars.

BlackBerry already works with hundreds of large enterprise clients including corporations and government agencies to manage and secure mobile devices on their internal networks.

Chen intends to build on those ties and BlackBerry's touted security credentials to allow these enterprise clients to build and customize in-house corporate and productivity applications for their employees.