According to reports from within the company, BlackBerry could put Android on future devices to give them broader appeal.
BlackBerry’s fall from grace has been monumental. The company’s devices, once sought after and lauded, are now largely eschewed by the public. A fact illustrated by the company’s market share – which now amounts to around 1 per cent – and its recent decision to concentrate on business users instead of consumers.
In a pretty major bid to halt the slide, some internal sources have claimed that future BlackBerrys may now come packing Android as well as BlackBerry OS.
Two separate sources reportedly told Reuters that the company’s decision makers were looking into the possibility of putting Google’s mobile OS on future devices, in a bid to give them mass appeal.
If true, then future BlackBerry devices will come in two flavours, with some running on the company’s sturdy BlackBerry 10 OS and others rocking the more familiar Android, to give better access to apps – an area in which BlackBerry has struggled, almost like a Google Play Edition BlackBerry, or sorts.
Whether or not the software will be present in any of the company’s upcoming 2015 range, which was recently leaked, remains to be seen. However, it’s unlikely that Android would make a good fit for the revamped Passport which we saw earlier this week, as the square screen is a poor match for Google Play apps.
Even if Android is used to power future BlackBerry devices, they should still pack in some of the more important features which have made ‘Berry’s so popular in the past, especially in government and enterprise circles – such as secure messaging and encryption.
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