We don’t talk about BlackBerry much here at AndroidStory so it’s even more unusual when we have to say the words “Android-based” and “BlackBerry” in the same sentence. According to a report from Reuters, however, that’s exactly what is happening as BlackBerry is allegedly planning an Android-based BlackBerry smartphone for release sometime in the future and could come with BlackBerry staple features like a slide-out keyboard. Whether this would be running pure Android or a forked version of Android (like Nokia and Amazon) remains to be seen.
BlackBerry has all but faded into obscurity in the mainstream smartphone market so changing to Android as its operating system could just be the drastic measure the company needs to claw back some of its long lost market share. Enterprise software (and hardware) is remarkably weak on Android so there is definitely a place for BlackBerry to succeed, so we’ll see if, and when, such an announcement comes from BlackBerry in the near future.
What do you think about BlackBerry making an Android-based BlackBerry smartphone? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Reuters via Android Police