14 DAY TRIAL // Amid rumors about a BlackBerry acquisition by major companies like Microsoft, Huawei or Xiaomi, the Canadian company seems to have made a very important decision that has yet to be made official.
Due to unexpected low sales of its BlackBerry Passport and Classic devices, the Canadian company is said to be turning to Android in an attempt to remain competitive on the smartphone market.
According to Reuters, BlackBerry is considering putting Android on one of its smartphones for the first time. For the time being, it's unclear whether or not the company will completely drop its BlackBerry lineup of devices.
The main reason that BlackBerry wants to launch its own Android device is to send a signal to those who don't have faith in the company's BES12 system, which should not only manage but also secure smartphones and tablets powered by operating systems other than BlackBerry.
It will be a slider phone with touchscreen and physical keyboard
Two unnamed sources suggest that BlackBerry will launch an Android-powered slider smartphone sometime this fall. The device is said to offer both a physical keyboard and a large touchscreen.
By launching a slider handset with a physical keyboard, BlackBerry wants to appeal to customers that are still using older BlackBerry phones with QWERTY keyboards but want access to a larger pool of apps, which Android offers.
In the past, BlackBerry offered to allow OEMs to put some of its patented security, productivity and communication tools on any smartphone powered by Android, iOS and Windows Phone, for the right price.
Neither BlackBerry nor Google wanted to comment on the matter, but John Chen, the Canadian company's CEO, was pretty clear back in March when he said that BlackBerry was still committed to its device business.
What do our readers think about a slider BlackBerry smartphone powered by Android? Could this alleged device attract enough attention to bring the company's finances back on track?