Priv, added Chen, combines the best of security and productivity of Blackberry with the growing mobile application ecosystem that is available on Android.
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He did not disclose the price, but said the Priv will launch before the end of this year, and that BlackBerry is “working with all the major carriers”. It’s not clear whether it plans to use Android for future models, but we wouldn’t rule it out. Here’s what we do know: BlackBerry is betting on bringing back slider phones. Analysts had been expecting Blackberry to post a loss of $0.09 a share and revenue of around $610m.
In a press release detailing its second quarter finances, Blackberry was a bit cagey on the details of its forthcoming device.
They have been asking the makers of BlackBerry smartphones to try Android.
From what is known till now, the BlackBerry Priv is expected to be powered by a Snapdragon 808 chipset, and come with 3GB of RAM.
BlackBerry has been flirting with Android for years, including building a system designed to make it easy for developers to offer their Android apps on BlackBerry phones.
Further, John Chen also mentioned that the company on the other side is committed to BB10 and will be rolling out the BlackBerry 10.3.3 update first quarter, next year.
Scotia Capital analyst Daniel Chan said in a research note this week, “There is an opportunity for BlackBerry to differentiate itself from numerous generic Android vendors by focusing on the enterprise market to easily achieve its 10-million unit goal”.
“I’m not satisfied (with) … where we are in the overall revenue and profitability, especially the performance of our handset business”, Chen said.
The revenue measure is a key one for the company, which is largely betting on sales of device-management software and phones aimed at business customers to help fuel growth.
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The BB 10 operating system was unveiled in 2013 as part of an effort to regain market share lost as consumers around the world shifted to devices running on Google Android and Apple’s iOS.
