Tag: blackberry android

As the company misses its predicted financial goals for the second quarter, it has launched its latest turnaround strategy.

As BlackBerry continues to watch the sale of its smartphones withering, CEO John Chen has announced that he is launching a controversial new way to draw appeal back to these mobile devices: Android.

Until now, the company has always based its smartphones on its own operating system.

This new strategy will have BlackBerry mobile device running on an operating system from another company for the first time. This will occur in the form of the upcoming Priv smartphone that will be launched later this year. That gadget is going to be built on the popular Android operating system from Google. This has been a decision that has been greatly debated at BlackBerry and that Chen has admitted is still considered to be quite controversial there.

The decision to take on Android could allow the company to overcome a main challenge to their mobile devices.

Chen explained that one of the primary reasons that people have not been picking up BlackBerry smartphones is because the operating system doesn’t allow for many of the favorite popular apps that consumers want to be able to use. Many customers and businesses wouldn’t mind the smartphones but the apps they want or need just aren’t available on the company’s operating system. However, by releasing gadgets that are based on Android, this allows the company to completely sidestep that issue.

Chen explained that “I am now going to eliminate apps as an excuse not to buy our phone,” adding that “We’ll see how it goes.”

In the middle of all the financial struggles that BlackBerry has faced over the last handful of years, the limited number of apps – and the lack of the most popular apps – has been a constant and sizeable problem that has worked against the company.

Chen attempted to partner with the Amazon Appstore in order to put that problem behind them in 2014. Amazon’s mobile app offerings are already in the thousands for Android based device users. However, the failure of Amazon’s own smartphone left Chen with less than he had hoped. Now, the goal is to show that the Priv will provide customers with everything they want and expect from the brand’s mobile devices, but with the app offerings that have been missing.

The second half of 2015 may see a new device from the handset maker, based on Google’s mobile operating system.

The rumors are flying and reports are coming from every direction, suggesting that BlackBerry smartphones will soon have Android operating systems, despite the fact that at the time that this article was written, the company and its CEO have, so far, not confirmed any of the speculations.

The reports have now indicated that multiple smartphone models will be rolled out this year, using Android.

Though officially unconfirmed, virtually every sign is now indicating that BlackBerry smartphones will soon be produced based on the Android operating system. The company has even gone to the extent of purchasing two domain names “AndroidSecured.com” and “AndroidSecured.net”, which have to do with a statement that CEO John Chen had previously made on the subject. When asked if his company would be making mobile devices based on Android, his reply was that it would happen only if Google’s mobile operating system could be made to be far more secure.

BlackBerry smartphones operating on Android would still maintain some of the company’s own software functions.

Even though it would have a different operating system, there would still be signs of the BlackBerry OS in terms of the software functions as well as the applications services, for example: BBM, BES12, and BlackBerry Blend. This according to a number of sources that have been reported by the media, but who have remained unnamed. They are, supposedly, from Foxconn, the manufacturer of the devices.

In order to boost the hardware’s competitive edge, BlackBerry has also broadened its hardware partnerships in order to include Wistron and Compal Electronics, in addition to the partner that it already has, Foxconn.

Many analysts in the industry feel that if Blackberry smartphones are rolled out with Android, it is very unlikely that the company will face losses as a result. The company does still maintain a strong brand image in a range of different markets. Moreover, its reputation in terms of security – particularly from its enterprise side – is essentially unparalleled. However, it is more than evident that changes need to be made in order to boost the value of the hardware business unit at BlackBerry, and to many, it feels as though this could be the move that would make that difference.