BlackBerry Launches Android Smartphone

wiredmikey writes: In an attempt to come back from the dead, BlackBerry announced plans to sell an Android-powered smartphone. The struggling Canadian smartphone maker said it would begin selling "Priv," described as "a flagship handheld device that will run on the Android operating system with BlackBerry security," expected to be available later this year. The company isn't giving up on its own operating system, and will continue to develop and enhance its BlackBerry 10 platform, which currently represents less than one percent of smartphone users.

Comments

6 years

[danbob999]

They are 6 years too late.

Re:6 years

[iONiUM]

I disagree, I think it's a very smart idea. Regardless of whether QNX is superior or not technically, it no longer matters. They've lost because people want to use what is popular (and has apps), and Android and iOS are it.

If they can take Android, which is open source, and create their own fork of it which is proven to be much more secure yet can still use the Android app eco-system, it could very well be a big hit when combined with good QWERTY phones.

As such, I agree with the OP, they should have done it a long time ago, and I think it's too late now.

DISCLAIMER: I've had a BB Z10 and Q10 since they came out, and love the keyboard, but I also have a Nexus 5 which I use almost exclusively because of all the problems I have with the BB phones.

Re:6 years

[danbob999]

The BB10 OS is very well designed, fast and secure.

How do you know how secure it is?

1% of a huge number is still pretty large

[pz]

The closing sentence in the summary suggests that the BlackBerry 10 is a losing proposition because it represents less than 1% of the market.

The mobile phone market is so enormously vast that 1% of it would still be quite large, thankyouverymuch. Nearly everyone in the US has a phone. Let's use round numbers: say we have 300,000,000 phones in the US. 1% of that would be 3,000,000 phones. Each phone has an expected replacement cycle of 3 years, so the sales should be about 1,000,000 units per year.

Please show me a single manufacturer that would not be jumping out of their pants to move a million units a year. Heck, there probably aren't that many manufacturers that COULD deliver at that level.