[KingOfQwerty]

What if (A BIG IF) Google asked BlackBerry to make a PKB device on which Google can load stock Android similar to Nexus.

BB has two unique points hardware wise.
1. Hardware level security - IMO this can't be produced here w/o BB OS. So ruled out.
2. Unique design form factors + Keyboard - In this case, a Passport hardware with Full Android OS.

BB is just a hardware provider. Google will bundle it together with Android for Work. Aimed for enterprises along with VKB Nexus. Whatever the need, they can take. (Not PKB is what they want but giving an option to them which is not available in iOS)

The keyboard patent is still with BB so no Typo kind of fiasco. One little (or big) hitch is the brand name 'BlackBerry' on it. Consumer negativity towards the brand name and in extreme cases some one hacks it and the media is all over it.

Again referring to the rumor that the device will be available sooner or Nov at least, a Passport makeover is very likely. Like How BB modified AT&T Passport with in months.

What BB gets in return. Not definitely Google Play because of OHA. But Google can definitely make Google Apps (You Tube, G+, GMail, GDrive etc) available for BB10 platform. Once these apps are available and some consumer confidence increases, I hope the other big developers may look towards BB10 platform.

May be BlackBerry Experience Suite is preloaded (not default) in these devices and user depending upon requirement use it.

Google takes care of the marketing and BB hopes somebody will notice the original BlackBerry!

Any thoughts, pitfalls?

[Kris Simundson]

Certainly an interesting concept, though I don't know if Google will want to play with keyboards again on phones. They started with keyboards, and I'm sure they don't want to relive those days of Android 1.1-1.3

[KingOfQwerty]

It is certainly my speculation. I just connected the rumours with business case.

It could be a differentiator for Google in enterprise space against iOS. And the assumption is their is a market for PKB devices.

For BlackBerry, it is just PKB cross platform like BBM and a revenue stream

Posted via CB10

[Troy Tiscareno]

Many Android manufacturers made phones with keyboards - in fact, ALL of the early Android phones had PKBs. But once all-touch Android phones were available and comparable, PKB phones sold poorly compared to their all-touch competition, and required more support (hardware buttons means a lot more to go wrong more easily - even BB suffers with this) and eventually manufacturers stopped making them.

I'm not saying there is ZERO demand for PKBs, but the demand is quite small, and Google doesn't do many things targeted at small niches - they tend to do things that target the masses. That's who they are, and the direction that they get from Larry and Sergei. Unless you believe that Google has tens or hundreds of millions of people demanding PKB phones (and there are still a few PKB Androids out there for those who really want one), then you must know that this is not going to happen.

[clickitykeys]

Troy is correct, though a little too kind to Google ;-). Here's my (somewhat snide) take:

Google and the Android partners copied Apple to make a touch-enabled OS that initially sucked. They copied BlackBerry and Palm to make some physical keyboarded devices that also sucked.

Over time, the OS itself got a lot better and imaginative, and after Ice-cream Sandwich, clearly surpassed iOS in functionality if not user-friendliness. The physical keyboards, however, continued to suck. Every device made by Motorola, for example, from the original Droid to its many successors, had a godawful keyboard. Naturally, very few people wanted a keyboard.

Q10/10.3.1.2582

[KingOfQwerty]

Yes, absolutely we don't have any data points on PKB need. Yet we had Typo 1, Typo 2, Lawsuit and settlement. Was it someone's itch to make PKB?
In the face of almost zero traction of BB devices, don't Google have first mover advantage over Apple if it makes a pact with BlackBerry?
Can Chen make a deal with Google in return to secure Android?
Is it not true that most of usable item's form factors follow a cycle? And one can make this possible with marketing muscle?
AND it is the only way BB can make Android w/o voiding OHA, right?

[BeautyEh]

See this is why it would make sense, in a last ditch kind of effort, for BB to go Android: there IS a niche demand for PKB devices. It may be small - but if they could get a large enough chunk of that niche - it might be enough for a sustainable hardware/consumer business. At least maybe in the short term.

Posted via CB10

[keithhackneysmullet]

Why do all of these threads started with the assumption that BlackBerry had something Google desperately needs and can't produce themselves ? That's not reality. If there is a BlackBerry / Google relationship it's more likely free 9900's for Eric Schmidt in exchange for oha membership.

Posted via CB10

[Prem WatsApp]

The slider attempt (and I'm not using the word Zlider, if it's not a enhanced Z with BB10) might just work for BlackBerry,
it will allow for all-touch use,
have the apps and
provide the legacy user with the PKB experience, if needed...

:-D

�   Pastaporto aglio e olio... Mmmhhh!   �

[KingOfQwerty]

Why do all of these threads started with the assumption that BlackBerry had something Google desperately needs and can't produce themselves ? That's not reality. If there is a BlackBerry / Google relationship it's more likely free 9900's for Eric Schmidt in exchange for oha membership.

Posted via CB10

Unfortunately, imo, that is the only way OHA can be bypassed!

[nuff_said]

Love your theory and would love for it to be true but I don't think we will see BlackBerry making phones with their own OS after 2016.
Google could easily buy BlackBerry and get their pkb devices out with android on them with the pocket money they make in an hour. Why team up with BlackBerry? Unless Chen and co aren't looking to sell BlackBerry at all at this moment.
As for nobody wants pkb every company I've worked for only allowed one option for pkb phones: BlackBerry. They still have a niche even if a small percentage of the population want them. So perhaps having an android device with a pkb for enterprise would move more than a BlackBerry version.
I feel as if the writing is on the wall and unless something drastic happens between now and the end of the year we won't see anything significant happen from BlackBerry in consumer market again.
Here's hoping Chen's got an ace up his sleeve

They laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at them because they're all the same. 