We already know that the BlackBerry Priv is a big deal for BlackBerry because it’s the company’s first Android smartphone, but it turns out that it could be even more important than originally thought.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen says that his firm could stop making phones if it doesn’t make money in 2016. Chen also indicated that he plans to support both the Android and BlackBerry 10 operating systems for now, but that if he could bring all of BB10’s security features to Android, he could drop BB10 entirely in a year or two.
BlackBerry’s been having a rough go of things lately, with the company recently reporting a net loss of $66 million and phone sales of just 800,000 units in its fiscal Q2 2016. The Priv could end up being a big deal for BlackBerry because it combines BlackBerry hardware — including a physical keyboard — with Google’s Android OS, especially if BlackBerry can get the Priv onto all four major US carriers. Whether it’ll be enough to convince BlackBerry to say in the handset biz remains to be seen, though.