According to a new report, BlackBerry is considering equipping an upcoming smartphone with Android OS for the first time. The move is said to be part of a shift to a more software-centric strategy. Although new BlackBerry smartphones have the ability to install Android apps, the report claim that, in a few months, Blackberry will actually sell a smartphone that runs Android out of the box, instead of the company’s own Blackberry 10 OS.
BlackBerry is now considering to become an Android manufacturer in an attempt to promote BES12, the company’s device management solution, said the source. Aimed at enterprises and governments, BES12 can remotely manage smartphones, but although it’s BlackBerry software, the solution can also manage Android, iOS, and Windows Phone smartphones.
BlackBerry now holds a small fraction of the U.S. smartphone market after commanding a nearly 50 percent share as recently as 2009. Although BlackBerry was once Canada’s most valuable company, with a market value of $83 billion in June 2008, the stock has plummeted to less than $10 from over $140 a share. That gives it a market value of about $5 billion.
Few days back, former BlackBerry co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said that Apple’s introduction of the iPhone and BlackBerry’s rushed attempt to match it was devastating for the once iconic company.
Balsillie said in his first public remarks since leaving the company in 2012 that he knew BlackBerry couldn’t compete after the iPhone’s introduction in 2007 and after BlackBerry’s buggy touchscreen device called the Storm had a “100 percent return rate.”
Source- Reuters
