BlackBerry CEO John Cheng might have been hesitant to say it when earlier pressed to do so but it seems that his lieutenants are not afraid to say it: Android is the future of BlackBerry. This is more than clear if statements reportedly made by Damian Tay, senior director, APAC product management at BlackBerry, are anything to go by.
Speaking to the Economic Times of India, Tay made it clear that BlackBerry’s long-term goals for its smartphone business do not include its own platform, BB10, or even a successor to it. The Waterloo-based company is going all in on Google’s Android.
“The future is really Android. We went for Android essentially for its app ecosystem. In addition, all the enterprise solutions that we have been doing have been cross-platform for a long time now. So it’s a natural progression towards Android…”
BlackBerry released its first ever smartphone running Android, the BlackBerry PRIV, late last year. The PRIV, while loved by reviewers, has been a tough sell and the company is expected to release at least two new Android-powered smartphones this year that are relatively cheaper than the PRIV.
PRIV, short for Privacy and Privilege, heralded a new chapter in Blackberry’s smartphone history as its efforts to weave into Android its legendary security software has resulted in what will likely be the company’s main alternative to BB10 and legacy BlackBerry software in the long term. BB10 is likely to continue receiving much-needed security and minor feature updates but it is not expected to get a successor.
Source: Economic Times of India
