There are rumours abroad that suggest that Blackberry may
debut an Android smartphone as reported in the article “BlackBerry
Venice phone, running Android, said to arrive in November”, published
August 19, 2015 by Lance Whitney, CNET News.
This is based on a post on the twitter account of reliable
leaker Evan Blass, aka @evleaks, on Wednesday August 19th 2015:
—
Evan Blass (@evleaks) August
19, 2015
His tweet shows rendering of the Android smartphone,
codenamed Venice, running Google Android 5.0 Lollipop. He also posted Tweets with videos that
purported to show a Blackberry running Google Android:
Eye
candy. pic.twitter.com/GtJwOfOus8
—
Evan Blass (@evleaks) August
19, 2015
.@halfnibble More
of an "Android Maya job," innit? pic.twitter.com/4Fhll0Bfv0
—
Evan Blass (@evleaks) August
19, 2015
So is @evleaks telling the truth? Or is this just Social
Media hocus pocus?
Evaluating the
@evleaks posts - Blackberry codenamed Venice might be a new Blackberry
Considering that Google Android 6.0 Marshmallow is set to
launch sometime in September 2015 as predicted in my blog article
entitled “Google
Android M is Marshmallow - Why LG, Motorola, HTC, Xiaomi might switch to
Samsung Pay in AI Awakening in 2016”, this information is a little dated.
This Venice device looks a lot like the Blackberry Passport
that had launched on AT&T Network in February 2015 as reported in my blog article
entitled “US$649.99
Blackberry Passport and US$419.99 Blackberry Classic - Why Americans are ready
to fall in love with Blackberry” .
Even the specs are similar albeit slightly bigger than those
of the Blackberry Passport as listed in my blog article
entitled “US$599
Blackberry Passport Launched - How Blackberry Blend Remote Access may trump
Apple Pay Wallet in the US of A”.
1.
Google Android 5.0 Lollipop
2.
5.4" screen
3.
2,560x1,440 pixel resolution QHD LCD screen
4.
3GB of RAM
So this may be evidence of a new Blackberry and it possibly might
be running Google Android. Is there any other
evidence that Blackberry has turned to
the Dark side....er..I mean switched to Google Android?
Unfortunately yes!
Blackberry
Passport spotted running Android - Why a switch to Google Android will not
improve Blackberry Sales
In fact, there is even a video, released on Monday August 24th
2015 showing Google Android 5.0 Lollipop
running on a Blackberry Passport as reported in the article “BlackBerry
Passport shown running Android in new video”, published August 24, 2015 By
Chris Welch, The Verge.
This recent video as well as the @evleaks suggests Google
Play will be the App Store used by this alleged device, implying that
Blackberry may be augmenting it with their own app store. Blackberry Hub will
also be on the new device, making viewing of your emails text messages and
Social Media ports on any device possible.
Content Transfer will also be available on the new device,
making this still a comfortable transition for lovers of Blackberry who had
defected to Google Android.
 |
Based on the appearance of the renderings in the @evleaks
photo which may have been from a presentation, it would appear that the
Blackberry Venice will have the same look and feel of a typical Blackberry
Smartphone.
However, it would have Google Android 5.0 Lollipop as the underlying OS, with a Blackberry themed
skin as pointed out in the article “New
BlackBerry Venice leak hints that BlackBerry 10 could be used as an Android
skin”, published Aug 22 2015 by Alan F., PhoneArena.
So it’s possible that Blackberry may indeed by planning a
Blackberry Android smartphone, especially as they've not released any new smartphones
since the Blackberry Classic back in December 2014 as pointed out in the
article “BlackBerry's
Android device one step closer to reality”, published AUGUST 21, 2015
by Jason Cipriani, Fortune.
So where do I personally stand as it relates to the
possibility of a Blackberry powered by Google Android?
Bad decision by
Blackberry - Android has Fragmentation and Security problems during Global
smartphone slowdown
I'm not in support of this change of OS, as Blackberry seems
to be selling itself short by succumbing of popularity of Android.
Especially given Android’s current security problems such as
StageFright and Certifi-Gate as explained in my blog article entitled “Check
Point Software Technologies discover Certifi-gate – How to Control an Android
Lollipop smartphone and Why fragmentation is at fault”.
Yes, Android is winning in terms of global sales overall,
according to the stats from IDC in the article “Here's
why the iPhone isn't going to catch up to Android any time soon”, published
Aug. 26, 2015, by Rob Price, Business
Insider UK.
But their popularity is also resulting in severe
fragmentation of their OS, with millions of devices running different versions
of Google Android. Not to mention Global
smartphone sales are slowing down due to most markets being saturated with
smartphones, possibly except for India, the Middle East, Russia and North Korea!
This is due to competition among OEM (Original Equiptment
Manufacturers) and an unwillingness among customers to upgrade to a new device
on a yearly update cycle as pointed out in my Geezam
blog article entitled “Why
Android Fragmentation Worsens as Apple iOS 8 adoption almost complete”.
Focus should be on launching more smartphones in India,
China and other regions where smartphone penetration and growth potential
exist. The use of a lower security OS just because the consumer market loves an
OS made popular by the OEM's usage of Google's free OS is not good decision.
I fear that this will not produce the desired result, as
smartphone sales are slowing down globally indicates bearish times for Google
Android.
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