BlackBerry may release an Android smartphone this fall.
BlackBerry is considering a new smartphone that will run Google's Android operating system in a bid to win back customers it ceded to the iPhone and Android smartphones, Reuters reports. BlackBerry's existing devices currently run its own BlackBerry 10 operating system.
The Android-powered smartphone, which will reportedly launch this fall, will sport a slider form factor with a QWERTY keyboard hidden underneath a la BlackBerry's previous Torch. It's unclear if the device is the same slider device the company teased at Mobile World Conference earlier this year.
Switching over to Android would give BlackBerry users access to Google's massive ecosystem of apps. BlackBerry 10's weakness has always been its lack of apps. Recent BlackBerry's like the Passport and Classic support the Amazon Appstore's Android apps, but the selection there still pales in comparison to what Google has in its Play Store.
"Android is part of BlackBerry's strategy to pivot to focus on software and device management," the report states. Releasing an Android device is a vote of confidence in the company's BES12 device management system used by enterprises and government to manage devices on a many different operating systems including Android, iOS and Windows.
With less than 1% of the smartphone market share, trying something new might not be a bad idea for BlackBerry.
Source: Mashable
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