[Thunderbuck]

The only reason to run Android at all would be to get GPlay services, so I'd say "yes".

I'm not totally sure how this would work with BB10 and the Open Handset Alliance, but if Samsung is producing Tizen phones, presumably Google has loosened up a bit on that count.

[Thunderbuck]

Maybe, i don't know...we are overreacting?
Isn't it possible that they still will make bb10 devices next to android driven devices?

So people who want the apps will have them...
Bbry fans will stay with bb10.

Posted via CB10

There are two problems with that scenario. First, there's the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), and manufacturers need to be OHA-compliant to gain access to GPlay services on their products. One of the big commandments of the OHA is that you can't sell GPlay phones alongside forked-Android phones, which BB10 essentially is. Google may let up on this (as I said above, Samsung is producing Tizen phones that can also install/run APKs), but I don't know how much flexibility we can hope for.

Second, there's the simple fact of what will happen to the BB10 marketplace when the only hardware manufacturer supporting it starts moving away from it. There's little incentive for developers to code for it now, and there'd be even less with BB selling Android alongside. For most users it would become a fancy APK launcher with no GPlay, albeit with great integrated messaging.

This breaks my heart but I'm having trouble seeing any other realistic way forward.

[Witmen]

Bullshi!t mate ! SONY and HTC are in trouble with sales and overpriced BB would be hit ?? no way ..... Each produced BB with android makes a new Apple user , RIP BlackBerry

But let me guess, you'd be OK with BlackBerry churning out more BB10 devices. Am I right? BB10 has paid off so well for the company hasn't it? They didn't even manage to move a million of them last quarter.

In all fairness, I kind of agree with you. BlackBerry's hardware business is hopeless. You are right there my mate. Not even Android, the world's most popular mobile operating systen, will be enough to save it now. One thing is for certain though, BB10 wasn't all of a sudden going to set sales records. BB10 had a shot, and it failed. Miserably. In fact, I don't think there has ever been a mobile operating system to have failed as badly as BB10 has. So what would you have them do? Pump out more unwated BB10 devices or try something different?

The way I see it, there is no way they could do any worse with Android than they did with BB10.

[mvpcrossxover]

Yeah. Android users will throw away their Moto X. HTC, Galaxy, One+1, Sony, Nexus and run out to buy 10 sliders.

/s

Posted via CB10

[AnimalPak200]

Seriously guys,.. it's either they at least try this,.. or they stop making mass-market devices (they may make some $2000/piece units like on-premise cisco phones for hospitals,--but nothing for us).

People that so feverishly love BB10 have been buying two, three, four of these devices,.. and they can't even break the million. This isn't a bakery, it's simply not feasible to keep current lines running in the factories,... and very much less investing serious R&D into future models. How many people can you pay with 800,000 devices (and falling), none of them selling at the full price they intended?

At one point BlackBerry was all hardware, so it would haven been inconceivable that it would continue as a company without making handsets. Nowadays things are very different and they have worked harder at diversifying away from handsets than on the actual handsets. So the 'escape from hardware' button is much closer to Chen's desk than it used to be.

Let's see what they can do here. Maybe we'll be disappointed, they will fail even with Android and eventually shut it down,.. but it's hard to see how the latter will not happen if they stick with BB10 only.

Posted via CB10

[Thunderbuck]

Yeah. Android users will throw away their Moto X. HTC, Galaxy, One+1, Sony, Nexus and run out to buy 10 sliders.

/s

Posted via CB10

BlackBerry is already a niche producer. They've "niche-ed" themselves into a corner where they face dropping their own OS to survive.

There's an upside, though: nobody else is producing keyboard phones, and BlackBerry produces the best ones out there. Is everyone going to want one? No, but the ones who do will be enthusiastic. They'd likely sell more kb Android phones than kb BB10 ones.

[AnimalPak200]

Yeah. Android users will throw away their Moto X. HTC, Galaxy, One+1, Sony, Nexus and run out to buy 10 sliders.

/s

Posted via CB10

They don't have throw anything away. But at least they are infinitely more likely to try it knowing they don't have to leave the platform they've bought into, and will have all their apps.

What the hell is HTC? Samsung and LG make clothes washers,.. I've yet to hear anyone express their unflinching devotion to the washing machine companies. OK, maybe the ONE+ folks will sit in their forums sharpening their pitchforks (ahem CB),.. but come on... a majority of the rest of Android users will buy whatever the next thing is available when they drop their device in the pool. Who knows, maybe a physical device will prove to be enough 'differentiative(not a word) stickiness' for BlackBerry.

Posted via CB10

[Grabber5.0]

I didn't think it was possible for me to not buy the upcoming slider but BlackBerry managed to prove me wrong. I have absolutely no interest in any Android phone.

What if it could run LuneOS?

-- Sent from my Palm Veer using Forums

[chuckwalla]

Who knows, maybe a physical device will prove to be enough 'differentiative(not a word) stickiness' for BlackBerry.

Posted via CB10

Could be. Just an observation : my company switched from BlackBerry to iPhone & Android. Now hardly anyone responds to email on their phones. They wait to get back to their laptops
For a lengthy reply.


What the what?

[LazyEvul]

I'm actually pretty excited about this, if it's true. It'll be nice to have a BlackBerry device that I can finally recommend to people without saying "Oh, yeah, but [insert app here] isn't available." People always get excited when I show them BlackBerry hardware, it's the OS that lets them down. Sure it has some cool features, but ultimately, it doesn't fit their needs.

Combine a familiar OS with exciting hardware, and you might have a phone the general public wants to buy. Whether it's enough to save the hardware division is a different story, but I'll be damned if it doesn't sell better than BB10 - that bar has been set awfully low.

[EchuOkan1]

AndroidBerry/AndroBerry, AWESOME! Ah, ...now what?

Posted via CB10

[lnichols]

Only way I would be interested in this phone if it is running a hypervisor with BB10 and Android, has Google Play services, and BlackBerry is able to announce they have the full support of Google in the release. Just Android doesn't interest me, and BB10 with with an Android runtime that doesn't have Google services doesn't interest me anymore. My next phone will not be a compromise device. Been doing that supporting BlackBerry far too long. Also I'm going to need Chen/BlackBerry to be a little more open with their plans. Right now I think they have zero commitment to making hardware work.

Posted via Z30

[Bla1ze]

Is that your way of saying that the device mockups posted to this topic are probably fan-made and someone is laughing their a** off at so many people believing it to be a real device? Especially since the BBM or other BlackBerry icons are NOWHERE TO BE SEEN on that device render?



I'd expect a real BB device render (or a fake made by someone who's brain isn't JUST filled with "photoshop skillz") to have BB branded icons up and down the dunes on that screen.

Nah, just my way of saying a render isn't proof of anything. It just adds to the already existing (and mounting) rumors. It remains unconfirmed by BlackBerry in every which way. As for the 'there's no BB icons' well that's not really a sign of anything either... I've seen PLENTY of shotty renders comes from BlackBerry themselves, so that doesn't really mean much at all. One could even go so far as to say that was intentional so as to maintain plausible deniability if leaked such as it has.

[Superfly_FR]

@Bla1ze: if ever one can answer, it's you, I believe.
Re: 'the rumor is mounting'

What I remain is

an initial speculation which was more a reflexion than anything else, powered initially by "they should since day one" at first, then legits "why not" webcasts (for instance, hey James). This leaded to numerous blog and forums writings, with nothing more as a starting point.
...
Last week (?) there has been N4BB article.
Today those Tweets.

I may have missed some, could you confirm/infirm/complete and, of course comment whether or not all of this rumor circle in fact only sits on 2 "sources" where physical representations are non existing but renders?

I'm amazed of how this inflated to the point it's not even about the fact that there will be or not an android device but already "if there's a home button ? " or the likes ...

Calling the expert !

Posted via CB10

[dejanh]

Could be. Just an observation : my company switched from BlackBerry to iPhone & Android. Now hardly anyone responds to email on their phones. They wait to get back to their laptops
For a lengthy reply.

What the what?

Not surprising at all. iOS email handling is atrocious, and I now use an iPhone 6 Plus as my primary device. I would love to get a BlackBerry experience on an Android. That would actually be a no-compromise device.

Only way I would be interested in this phone if it is running a hypervisor with BB10 and Android, has Google Play services, and BlackBerry is able to announce they have the full support of Google in the release. Just Android doesn't interest me, and BB10 with with an Android runtime that doesn't have Google services doesn't interest me anymore. My next phone will not be a compromise device. Been doing that supporting BlackBerry far too long. Also I'm going to need Chen/BlackBerry to be a little more open with their plans. Right now I think they have zero commitment to making hardware work.

Posted via Z30

If your next phone will not be a compromise device, then you must be waiting for something that does not yet exist. iOS and Android have plenty of compromise.

[RyanGermann]

"That render is as fake as..."

Elaine Benes' Os

[johnny_bravo72]

Just curious, if this is actually released, who gets first dibs to feature/review it? CB or AndroidCentral?

Posted from an ME173X

[anon(9353145)]

Interesting, as usual. Round and round and round it goes, and where it stops only Chen knows...

Well, it looks like the top right icon says "BBM Mike" so there's at least that nod. AND it seems to be using the same 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith perspective that BlackBerry did for the Passport!

What I really want to know is WHO registered droidberry.com. It was in 2011, how likely is it that Kevin Michaluk owns it. Likely, I think.

[RyanGermann]

Well, it looks like the top right icon says "BBM Mike" so there's at least that nod.

If it's like the legible bottom right icon that it looks like, it says 'SMS Mike', which just amps up the fakey... If they go so far as to include home screen icons for "quickly send a short text message" and it's not a BBM icon, that nails it for me. FAKE!

[anon(9353145)]

If it's like the legible bottom right icon that it looks like, it says 'SMS Mike', which just amps up the fakey... If they go so far as to include home screen icons for "quickly send a short text message" and it's not a BBM icon, that nails it for me. FAKE!

Actually, my bad. It's a phone icon by the picture, so it must say Call Mike. Or in my case, call your optometrist. =)

Could be fake, but there's so many, lol. Anyway, it's viral on the tech blogs beyond CrackBerry so if BlackBerry stays mum for the next few days, I think there's some fire behind all the smoke. Hopefully it doesn't mean the end of BlackBerry 10 simultaneously, I'd like to see them continue with the native OS as an option to the other three.

[Nanker Phelge]

Ok, Mr. Chen did state he wasn't against an android device "IF" it could be made secure. Now this is a company that can't get 10.3.2 to all users do to carrier issues.

Do you think he has just got a magic wand to poof and make android secure?

Enough already.

[Lithtech]

As an Blackberry/Samsung user, I think Blackberries are great in some ways like their hub, emailing, security........why would they want to be another Android OEM in an extremely saturated Android marketplace is just beyond me. Few Android OEMs like Samsung, LG are profitable. Many are suffering deep losses. Blackberry OS imho is superior to Android. Lighter, more responsive, more stable and more secure. All they had to do was introduce such hardware with their own OS which they never did. You can even sideload Android apps onto Blackberry OS 10.Their all touch screen phones are way behind the others. Only the Passport ( traditional Blackberry with physical qwerty keyboard) is very good.

[rohetaku]

As a longtime BlackBerry hater, I find myself in the very awkward position of feeling desire for a BlackBerry device. I think BlackBerry is about to get some hypocrite dollars from me . . .

Hopefully they will sell an unlocked version at some point, and hopefully the skin will be inoffensive.

Posted via CB10

[daradm]

Give me a dual-boot Venice, so those jokers at Sprint elect to carry the device. Then, let me boot up in BB10. There is absolutely no news on what Sprint intends beyond the Q10, which is a great device. Not even from Blackberry on what's up with Sprint. Are both sides not talking? How can I upgrade to a newer Blackberry?

[anon(1852343)]

Maybe someone from BlackBerry will chime in to let us know if this slider android BlackBerry is for real or not!

Blackberry Passport running 10.3.2.2339