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BlackBerry Launches Android Smartphone

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-dead-yet dept.

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.

7 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. 6 years by danbob999 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They are 6 years too late.

    1. Re:6 years by iONiUM · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:6 years by acoustix · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

      Here's the problem: Android isn't 100% open source (at least the way I understand it). The first part is obvious: Google Play Services. This is not open source, but it is needed to run many of the apps. (this is also why I can't run some of the Android apps on my BB Z10) There are also many binaries included in the Android OS where there is no code available. Because of that BlackBerry (or any other company) cannot guarantee the security of the device running Android. So they cannot have a secure device like a BB10 device.

      BlackBerry is doing what some of their supporters want: Great hardware (which is what BB is known for) running an OS with tons of apps.

      BlackBerry will continue to develop the BB10 OS because they have many customers that demand it.

      My disclaimer: I've had my Z10 since launch and I still love it. The BB10 OS is very well designed, fast and secure. I love it.

      --
      "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    3. Re:6 years by danbob999 · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

      How do you know how secure it is?

  2. 1% of a huge number is still pretty large by pz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --

    Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    1. Re:1% of a huge number is still pretty large by danbob999 · · Score: 4, Informative

      They don't have 1%. They have about one third of it. They have 0.37% of smartphones, or 0.27% of phones sold in 1H2015.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      If they could still keep this market share they could be fine. But they are loosing both market share and absolute sales every quarter. Mostly because they still have contracts with some slow-moving corporations, all of which are looking to switch.
      Their other problem is that it can be worth it to develop phones for only 0.3% of the market, but it's not worth it to develop and support an OS for them. Switching to Android could make sense. Only, it's too late.

  3. Re:What Happened? by Notorious+G · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It basically boils down to arrogance. I was a IT consultant and went on site to Blackberry offices in the 2008-ish time frame. They were building new office space like a dot-com era venture funded business on crack and insisted it was all going up from there.The iPhone had come out and was eating the market alive and BB execs I talked to considered it little more than a fad device for consumers that would never penetrate the business market. R&D pretty much stagnated as they decided the BB was so damn good it pretty much could not be improved. But what really did them in was apps. Ever try to write a BB app? It was frigging impossible to get it done. The API was poorly documented and often just flat out wrong. There was the public API and a API the internal BB developers used that legend has was much better. I don't know how much I really believe that but I can tell you for sure BB development sucked. Apple had it right, make app development easy and well documented. As far as I know, BB still has not learned this lesson.