A reason to produce the new legacy OS device
Like lots of you I've been wondering why...WHY BlackBerry would produce a new legacy OS device. Why devote expense and resources to an OS you must hope will be replaced soon by BlackBerry 10? Sure, it's still popular in parts of the world, but the last Curve and Bolds are perfectly good devices that don't really need updating - a hardware update won't improve the OS.
Finally this morning, after seeing the photos, a good reason came to me. At the moment, the BBOS is selling well enough that they must still be manufacturing them - fine. They must also be manufacturing a number of different models and colours of Bold and Curve. All these different models will ramp up production costs, and none will be selling THAT well to justify that.
But the new BBOS device is clearly using the same chassis and keyboard as the Q5. It can use the same colours too. So this standardised production will bring costs down for both.
And since the new BBOS is a mix, somewhat, of Bold and Curve, it can replace production of both. Instead of paying to produce a dozen lines of BBOS, BlackBerry can pay to produce one - and share that cost with BB10. This 'new' BBOS device could in fact largely be intended to reduce the cost of BBOS, and therefore its albatross like weight around BlackBerry's neck.
Posted via CB10