It’s too early to talk of these phones saving BlackBerry from oblivion – and the company is certainly unlikely to ever regain its position as a mobile phone colossus – but perhaps the move to Android has stopped the ship from sinking.
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But don’t give up all hope just yet.
In the past, BlackBerry phones were criticized for a lack of apps but the Priv’s Android software will open up the developer application program interface (API), Chen said.
The BlackBerry Priv smartphone has gone on sale in the United Kingdom through Carphone Warehouse.
· New features and add-ons include productivity enhancements like the ability to annotate and track file activity on BlackBerry 10 devices as well as custom branding and multi-server capabilities for the WatchDox for Mac app. It has an 18-megapixel camera, 22 hours of calling time on the battery and 32GB of storage. BlackBerry did not respond to our request for a comment on either Priv sales or future Android phones.
According to BlackBerry, “You can add a skin to the Android Virtual Device (AVD) Manager in the Android Studio SDK so that you can emulate the look and feel of a BlackBerry PRIV. This allows you to simulate the hardware keys on the PRIV, including both the power, volume up, volume down and the physical keyboard”.
Another sign that more Android BlackBerry phones may be on the way came in comments made today by Gallant Leon, managing director for the company in north Asia. “In other words, no compromises”.
Priced starting at $699 in the US, the Priv is clearly aimed at a niche audience of enterprise users who want BlackBerry-style security but prefer Android devices. BlackBerry has always placed a high priority on privacy and security – as shown by its recent £280 million acquisition of Good Technology – and the Priv certainly takes things to another level.
Using the system, company employees will be able to conduct secure conversations worldwide and, if required, over a Wi-Fi connection only, and will also be able to send encrypted text messages of any length.
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This means that the new BlackBerry Priv is probably the last change for BlackBerry to stay relevant on the market, and if they fail, they will probably be a niche company that provides software services to the government and other companies.
