The first Android based smartphone from the vendor can now be purchased by Canadians.
Canadians have now become the first consumers to be able to buy a BlackBerry PRIV in advance of its release, which is expected to occur in mid-November, though the company has yet to officially release a launch date.
The PRIV will be the first BlackBerry handset to be based on Google’s Android operating system.
This device has now been opened up for preorders within the Canadian market. Though there is no date published for the release of the BlackBerry PRIV, the company is hoping that consumers will start to get on board in buying the device ahead of time, when they know that there is an imminent launch date ahead – even if they don’t know exactly when that will be. This will represent the first time a smartphone from the company will be running on an operating system that was developed by a company other than itself.
The company is hoping that the BlackBerry PRIV will help to revive its floundering handset sales.
Since there is a relatively small BlackBerry customer base at the moment, the majority of developers have stopped creating mobile apps for that operating system. Instead, they have chosen to develop apps for Apple’s iOS and for Google’s Android, where the markets are exponentially larger. This drop in app available has caused BlackBerry to lose a tremendous amount of interest from customers.
Recently, it attempted to create a new appeal for its devices by making it possible for Android apps to be run on BlackBerry 10 through the Amazon app store. However, that didn’t produce the results for which they were hoping.
Now, the BlackBerry PRIV will take this effort a step further by dropping the BlackBerry operating system and using Android, instead, while still providing the hardware features that consumers have come to enjoy from the company. In this way, consumers will be able to use the brand’s smartphone but will still be able to download apps from Google Play, which offers far more applications and a much larger number of favorites than the company’s own offerings.
The success of the upcoming Android based smartphone will decide whether or not devices are in its future.
According to a statement from CEO John Chen, if the BlackBerry Priv does not manage the become profitable within the span of a year, it will likely mean that the company will step away from the hardware market of smartphones and will turn its attention toward selling secure software on various large mobile platforms.
This statement was made in California at Code Mode while showcasing the next BlackBerry smartphone.
Chen explained that the company is currently in a make or break phase when it comes to its hardware segment. The BlackBerry Priv simply needs to turn a profit next year, “Otherwise, I have to think twice about what I do there.” It looks as though the company is seriously considering a withdrawal from the smartphone hardware market if it doesn’t manage to be successful with its new upcoming Android based device.
That said, Chen has said that he is confident that the BlackBerry Priv has the potential it needs to succeed.
He explained that “Android in the enterprise is a very underserved space. With our connections, our accounts, our security know-how, this has expanded our market. The market wants privacy and security and they also want apps.” Because of this, Chen feels that he has found a place for the company’s hardware that could be a very profitable and a very defining one.
BlackBerry has always been a pioneer within the mobile device space, particularly when it comes to smartphones. In 1999, it was the first to launch a two-way pager, and its cell phone and smartphone handset had long been the dominant player in the marketplace, even among competition from extremely powerful players including Apple, Samsung, and others.
However, the company’s user base bottomed out and the company is still losing money on hardware even though it has strategically outsourced some of its manufacturing to Foxconn in Taiwan.
The hope the company has is that the Android operating system in the BlackBerry Priv will allow it to see successes that simply were not great enough in the recent handsets the company has released, including the Classic and the Passport. Chen’s goal is for a minimum of five million handset shipments per year.
