BlackBerry to release two Android smartphones this year; promises update for BB10 devices

John Chen has a reputation as a turnaround artist. He took over as CEO of the struggling mobile technology company, BlackBerry and ever since his goal was bring back the old glory days. Under his leadership, the Canadian smartphone maker introduced the BlackBerry Classic and Passport, which failed to draw any takers, due to the rise of Android devices. Then the company took a bold move by introducing their first Android smartphone, the Priv, which won rave reviews, but its hard to tell weather it was a success or not.

Now BlackBerry will stick with Google's Android OS instead of its own BB10 for its upcoming smartphone. Chen during an interview with CNET at CES 2016, confirmed the company's plan to release one Android phone this year, and a possibility of a second one. Unfortunately Chen kept mum about the release date.

If rumors are true, this could be the BlackBerry Vienna, which surfaced last year and features a physical keyboard. To remind you, the Priv had a sliding QWERTY Keyboard.    

Choosing Android OS over BB10 does not mean BlackBerry is abandoning its home grown OS. Chen promised that BlackBerry would continue to offer software updates for its BlackBerry 10 smartphones. BB-10 running phones including Passport, Classic and others will be getting security and privacy enhancements this year. However, the company has no plans to make a new one.

The coming version 10.3.3 will be certified for NIAP compliance, meaning it will have passed the strictest government-grade security tests, enabling us to further support our government and regulated customers who use BlackBerry 10 devices and demand the highest levels of security. We are also planning a version 10.3.4 for later this year with even more security improvements.

We already know that the company has been struggling to make profits for some time now. But Chen is confident that the company will start making profit this year. Overall, BlackBerry's 2016 plan is getting back into the smartphone game, but this will not be easy, one of the factor being Chinese smartphones, which is on the rise due to its cheap pricing.

Via

Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative