Can Android OS help rescue Blackberry Devices?
A number of reports have indicated a year-over-year decline in the sale of Blackberry devices. But the Canadian smartphone manufacturer has been taking new initiatives to make its smartphone hardware business profitable again. The year-over-year decline in the sale of Blackberry devices has further made the company launch new smartphones powered by Android OS. BlackBerry CEO John Chen has already revealed the company’s plan to launch new models of Android phones in near future, along with stopping production of BlackBerry 10-based handsets.
According to a recent report posted on Engadget.com, “BlackBerry spent years fine-tuning BB10, but its homegrown mobile OS will have to take a backseat for now. During an interview at CES in Las Vegas, CEO John Chen has revealed that the company plans to release at least one new Android phone this year. A second one might follow, but it likely depends on how well the first one sells. Chen chose to keep all the details and release dates a secret.” However, many analysts believe that it is too early to assess the real impact of Android-based BlackBerry phones.
Assessing the Impact of Android-based BlackBerry Phones
Reduced Production Cost
Android is an open source mobile operating system. So Blackberry can use Google’s mobile platform without paying any fees or royalty. At the same time, the company is not required to deploy funds and resources to develop and maintain Blackberry operating system. So the company can reduce its operational costs significantly by launching new models of Android-based BlackBerry phones. The reduced operational cost will help the company to earn more revenue and profits in a shorter amount of time.
No Need to Sell a Gigantic Number of Devices
The company has switched from Blackberry to Android with the objective to make it smartphone hardware business profitable again. But the company has to sell a much higher number of new devices to recover all costs and make profit. The reduced operating cost will help the company to make profit without selling a gigantic number of Android-based BlackBerry phones. While announcing its quarterly earnings, the company announced the sale of 700,000 smartphones over the previous three months. Many analysts believe that Android-based BlackBerry phones constitute a large percentage of 700,000 devices sold by Blackberry.
Positive Response to Blackberry Privs
The company launched Blackberry Privs, the first ever Android-based BlackBerry phone, in 2015. The device received average ratings from reviewers. Many reviewers praised the great design, impressive specs and excellent display of Privs. At the same time, they also pointed out a number of shortcomings of the device including decent camera, average keyboard and poor battery performance. However, the reviewers expect Blackberry to launch better and enhanced Android-based BlackBerry phone models in future. The positive response will encourage the company to launch more advanced models of smartphones powered by Google’s mobile technology.
Boost the Popularity of Android-based BlackBerry phones
The company has taken several initiatives to enhance the worldwide market share and popularity of Blackberry Privs. At present, users can avail the mobile device either with a contract through AT&T or as an unlocked smartphone. But the makers are planning to launch Privs in a larger scale with partnering companies like Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile. The diverse partnership and aggressive promotion will make more customers notice and use Android-based BlackBerry phones in near future.
Bring Enterprise-Focused Features to Android Platform
As Android OS is open source, the hardware manufacturers can customize the mobile operating system according to their specific needs. The openness will allow Blackberry to launch Android-based BlackBerry phones that run of Google’s mobile platform but offers the privacy and security features of Blackberry OS. For instance, Blackberry Privs allows users to access and prioritize all their messages through Blackberry Hub. At the same time, the users also have option to avail popular Google services like Gmail and Google Maps. The company can easily integrate enterprise-focused features in to the Android-based BlackBerry phones to make them score over other Android mobile devices available in the market.
Taking Advantage of a Robust App Ecosystem
According to VentureBeat.com, “In 2015, Google Play saw 100 percent more downloads than Apple’s App Store. Double the number of downloads is a huge achievement. In 2014, the figure was 60 percent, meaning Google Play was not only bigger in 2015, it grew even faster than Apple’s App Store.” So the people using Android-based BlackBerry phones have option to access a large number of apps available at Google Play Store. The massive worldwide market share of Android further encourages Android developers to build new and innovative apps and games at regular intervals. Thus, the Android-based BlackBerry phones will help the company to overcome the poor app ecosystem of Blackberry OS.
However, the company has made is clear through its official blog that Blackberry 10 operating system is still alive. It is planning to launch Blackberry 10.3.3 with several privacy and security enhancements in 2016. So the Blackberry fans will still have option to use upgraded models of popular Blackberry devices like Classic and Passport. But the smartphone models to be launched by the company in near future will be powered by Android OS instead of Blackberry OS.