BlackBerry’s slide from leader of the smartphone pack to near obscurity has not been easy to watch, and it sounds like the company has decided that embracing Android is the way to get its phone business back on track.
The launch of the BlackBerry Priv was a big clue: a flagship handset running the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system rather than the BlackBerry’s own BB10 software.
“The Priv device is essentially our transition to Android ecosystem,” BlackBerry director Damian Tay told The Economic Times. “As we secure Android, over a period of time, we would not have two platforms, and may have only Android as a [smartphone] platform.
The future is Android
Tay said that Android and BB10 would co-exist for the time being but it sounds like the writing’s on the wall. In fact, rumours that the company would switch OSes have been swirling since last summer.
“The future is really Android,” added Tay. “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.”
A few enterprise users and BB10 loyalists may shed a tear at the software’s passing, but focusing on Android makes more sense for BlackBerry if it wants to keep selling smartphones in the future.
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