BlackBerry’s shown a lot of love for Android lately, including launching BBM for Android and Android Wear as well as adding support for Android apps from the Amazon Appstore into BlackBerry 10 OS. Now a new report claims that BlackBerry may take its love for Android a step further.
BlackBerry is reportedly thinking about launching a new smartphone that’s powered by Android rather than its own BlackBerry 10 OS. That’s according to four sources speaking to Reuters, who claim that the move would be part of BlackBerry’s effort to focus more on software and device management.
Two of the sources say that BlackBerry’s possible Android device would be a slider that’d include both a touch screen and a physical keyboard. BlackBerry actually provided a brief glimpse at a new slider phone earlier this year (shown below), but the company hasn’t said anything about it since then. BlackBerry is reportedly targeting an autumn release for its Android slider.
Despite BlackBerry’s efforts to court physical keyboard fans with devices like the Passport and Classic, the company has been unable to secure any significant portion of the mobile market. While it remains to be seen if BlackBerry will actually release an Android phone, I’d be shocked if they hadn’t at least considered such a move.
An Android slider made by BlackBerry would get lots of attention for several reasons, including the fact that Android phones with keyboards are basically non-existent now, and it’s been forever since we’ve seen any smartphone with a slider form factor. Plus, you know, it’d be a BlackBerry running Android.
Do you think BlackBerry will actually launch an Android phone? If they do, would you be interested in it?