BlackBerry's square screen smartphone, the Passport, is coming to South Africa in early November 2014.

BlackBerry says the 4.5 inch square touch screen device is expected to be available during this period from authorised partners in the country.

"South Africa is a country of early adopters of the latest smartphone trends and I am convinced they are going to love our BlackBerry Passport; it's unique, innovative, disruptive and very BlackBerry," said Yudi Moodley, managing director for Africa at BlackBerry, in a statement on Tuesday.

BlackBerry unveiled its Passport smartphone last month in a move to capture interest from a market that was once the company's stronghold: businesspeople.

Increased productivity is the endgame for the BlackBerry Passport as the device sports a large square touch screen with which to better view emails.

BlackBerry says the Passport's square size helps its screen accommodate up to 60 characters on a single line, as opposed to 40 characters with a typical touch-screen handset in portrait orientation.

The Passport also comes with BlackBerry's signature QWERTY keyboard and the company's latest 10.3 operating system.

BlackBerry's move to launch the Passport comes after its much-hyped Z10 touchscreen smartphone failed to gain traction in markets such as the US last year.

But BlackBerry chief executive John Chen is spurring on a turnaround at the company, which is increasingly focusing on its software and services business. The company last month further reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss.

And despite focusing less on its handset business, BlackBerry says 50 million people globally use its older-generation phones.