Is Blackberry making a slider phone that runs Android?

[pete6032]

That is easy: Businesses.

This should be THE "my company assigned me a smartphone" Android phone or just close the doors. Consumers have given up on BB but business haven't. Cater to that market with good controls and management and they might have a hit on their hands. A few IT managers I know HATE HATE HATE BYOD and they just deal with it as a fact of life they hate but can't fix. A decent Android business phone gives them a reason to end a BYOD policy.

I don't believe business phones are a lucrative market any longer with the proliferation of consumer smartphones and everyone and their mother wants BYOD service at work. People don't want to carry around 2 phones.

 

[Commodus]

I don't believe business phones are a lucrative market any longer with the proliferation of consumer smartphones and everyone and their mother wants BYOD service at work. People don't want to carry around 2 phones.

BYOD is a factor, although I imagine BlackBerry's goal is to cover all the bases: make a phone that people want to buy for themselves, but which is also secure enough that companies will hand it out. One of the reasons Apple beat BlackBerry was that it made a device which was so good that people demanded to use it at work, and improved the security features quickly enough that employers could (eventually) justify it.

 

[lazybedone]

this will be very nice and might put them back into the phone market. People has lost faith in their technology. Making an android phone will enable people gain back their trust. Go BB.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I don't believe business phones are a lucrative market any longer with the proliferation of consumer smartphones and everyone and their mother wants BYOD service at work. People don't want to carry around 2 phones.

Some people are in industries where BYOD simply doesn't work because your work devices need a high level of security. Companies like defense contractors with secrets to keep would pay big bucks for a "safe" phone that the CEO doesn't hate to use. Heck I think the president still has a Blackberry for that reason.

 

[WelshBloke]

It does look like BB and Android are cozying up a bit.

http://www.xda-developers.com/blackberry-and-googles-new-partnership/

 

[Commodus]

Here's why BlackBerry probably doesn't want to cater to the hacking niche... Geeksphone just shut down:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/10/geeksphone-exits-phone-business/

There's definitely a crowd for absolute openness in phones, but it doesn't appear to make for a sustainable business model.

The BlackBerry/Google partnership (and a possible Android-based phone) makes more sense to me. BlackBerry's strength has been corporate security and management -- it should play on that advantage rather than trying to address those few audiences that aren't dominated by Apple and Google.

 

[zerocool84]

Blackberry has a small but fiercely loyal fanbase. Back when I was doing SM coordination for that unnamed crappy traffic app, the most frequent request I got was for a native BB10 app. Of course we were never going to do that. Wasn't worth the time and effort for such a small gain in user base.

The problem for BlackBerry is where do they entre the market. Budget Android smartphones are a commodity. It's easy to get lost in the sea of cheap Chinese phones. With the high end ones, you really have to be doing something special to attract users. I don't think adding a physical keyboard is something that special.

That's the thing, their loyal fanbase is EXTREMELY small now. They just couldn't keep up with competition. It happened to Nokia, it's been happening to Blackberry.

 

[pete6032]

http://www.crossmap.com/news/blackberry-lays-off-more-employees-blackberry-venice-rumors-19872

Rumors on BlackBerry Venice specifications states that it will have a 5.4-inch display, 2560 x 1440 resolution, 1.8 GHz Snapdragon 808 hexacore processor, and a 3GB RAM. Reports vary when it comes to the phone's rear camera as there are reports that state it will have an 18 MP camera, others state 16 MP. All reports are unanimous in the 5 MP front facing camera though.

If true, sounds like BB is entering the Android spec war.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Good, they need a flagship.

 

[pete6032]

Good, they need a flagship.

They need anything they can get right now to get a foothold in the US market.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I'm not surprised as I think Blackberry has been making some nice phones for a while (including ones without physical keyboards), but hardly anyone considered them at all because of Blackberry OS.

It does look like BB and Android are cozying up a bit.

http://www.xda-developers.com/blackberry-and-googles-new-partnership/

That's exactly what I thought they should be doing, only this is bigger as it sounds like Google is onboard so its going to get more support from Google. I think it's a win-win for both too.

 

[Artdeco]

The sales numbers of phones with physical keyboards has been dismal for years now, I don't see that changing, and as far as BYOD policies, the bean counters realized it saves them a ton of $, and it's not going away, ever.

 

[Claudius-07]

I guess it was too much to ask to just keep a clean, BB only device. I have a z10 for work and home. I don't want anything to do with Google or android. I mean I hope they still will maintain a straight up BB/BB OS device, no mutation or infestation from google or android apps or collaboration. Christ if I want an android phone I can use any of my dad's crappy phones. My office just got all our managers on Q10's upgraded from the older 9700 series. I suppose business users are simply not enough for BB to do well? Or if even businesses are leaving BB.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I guess it was too much to ask to just keep a clean, BB only device. I have a z10 for work and home. I don't want anything to do with Google or android. I mean I hope they still will maintain a straight up BB/BB OS device, no mutation or infestation from google or android apps or collaboration.

Um, you know BB OS can sideload Android app right?

I suppose business users are simply not enough for BB to do well?

Obviously not. BYOD is the new law of the land, as the assigned Blackberries get replaced by consumer phones.

 

[sweenish]

The sales numbers of phones with physical keyboards has been dismal for years now, I don't see that changing, and as far as BYOD policies, the bean counters realized it saves them a ton of $, and it's not going away, ever.

This is poor logic. There hasn't been a real contender with a physical keyboard for years now.

I think there's still enough of a market for those phones. I know one of my wife's friends only has a slab phone because there was no good phone with a physical keyboard for her to buy anymore.

 

[mmntech]

Some alleged photos of the prototype surfaced yesterday.
http://crackberry.com/blackberry-venice-slider-spotted-once-again-some-clearer-images

 

[shortylickens]

Looks nice but no need for a physical keyboard anymore for most people I would bet

Most people. But I'm in the minority that would buy a real keyboard phone.

Best one ever was on my LG Voyager. Never going to see that again.

 

[WelshBloke]

Most people. But I'm in the minority that would buy a real keyboard phone.

Best one ever was on my LG Voyager. Never going to see that again.

I always thought that I'd prefer a hard keyboard but they never quite work.
For a start your stuck with portrait or landscape, plus am so much faster on a good predictive keyboard.

I think that the time for hard keyboards has passed, everyone that was holding out for one has had to get used to soft ones.

 

[mmntech]

I'd be willing to give the keyboard a try, since typing on a touch screen is a PITA. Depends what the specs are and how much they want for it off contract. The Passport's internals are still respectable but the Snapdragon 801 tends to benchmark better on Android than BB10.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I was forced to start using touchscreen keyboards 3-4 years ago due to lack of availability. To this day I still hate typing out long emails or forum posts or whatever and will actually wait (and delay productivity) until I can get to a keyboard.

I've had 3-4 years of practice. On a physical thumb keyboard I didn't think twice about hammering out a long reply via email or whatever. I even enjoyed it. I miss those days.

 

[mmntech]

I was forced to start using touchscreen keyboards 3-4 years ago due to lack of availability. To this day I still hate typing out long emails or forum posts or whatever and will actually wait (and delay productivity) until I can get to a keyboard.

I've had 3-4 years of practice. On a physical thumb keyboard I didn't think twice about hammering out a long reply via email or whatever. I even enjoyed it. I miss those days.

I bought the iPhone and iPad when they first came out here in Canada. So I've been using touch devices for 7 years now. Yet I still haven't truly mastered it. I've gotten good at typing on my iPad but I still make plenty of mistakes. There's no tactile response to tell you what key you're actually pressing. That's not something you can fix with touch keyboards even with "haptic feedback".

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I bought the iPhone and iPad when they first came out here in Canada. So I've been using touch devices for 7 years now. Yet I still haven't truly mastered it. I've gotten good at typing on my iPad but I still make plenty of mistakes. There's no tactile response to tell you what key you're actually pressing. That's not something you can fix with touch keyboards even with "haptic feedback".

Oh yeah now that you mention it, I make plenty of mistakes now as well that I would NEVER have made on a physical keyboard. That's actually a huge part of what adds to my frustration with having to type out something long on a touch device - fixing retarded errors that would normally never occur on a physical keyboard.

Plus physical keyboards used to also have the four directional keys, making corrections really fast and not requiring me to reach up and physically tap to place a cursor somewhere between two letters.

And I could rest my thumbs on the keys themselves while thinking about what to type next.

 

[lyka]

yah, why not? BB should at least join the party..it's better late than never.. and I'd be glad to see them kickin around. .Wouldn't it be nice to see them compete with everybody else in the android world..

 

[Red Storm]

I bought the iPhone and iPad when they first came out here in Canada. So I've been using touch devices for 7 years now. Yet I still haven't truly mastered it. I've gotten good at typing on my iPad but I still make plenty of mistakes. There's no tactile response to tell you what key you're actually pressing. That's not something you can fix with touch keyboards even with "haptic feedback".

Gesture (swipe) typing is the best form of input I've seen for mobile devices. Crazy fast, and only needs one hand to do. Perfect for phones and tablets. I was excited when Apple announced 3rd party keyboards for iOS, but they are all so buggy that it's too frustrating to use (specifically swiftkey and swype).

I like that BB is making this phone. I have zero interest in it and will never buy one of their phones, but still, good to see it happening.

 

[pete6032]

Same here with typing out longer emails or forum posts from my phone, I am absolutely terrible with touch screens. I'm using SwiftKey now and it's a little faster, but nowhere near the speed of my old blackberry keyboard phone.