With all the trouble Blackberry is having, the say answer seems to be for them to make Android devices. There are no licensing fees to worry about, and very little maintenance should they choose to run stock Android. The build quality of Blackberry hardware has always been top-notch, so we’re sure they’d move units, maybe even better than with their own OS.
That seems more and more like a pipe dream each day. With the delayed BB10 platform, Blackberry enthusiasts got what they waited for. The issue was that Blackberry enthusiasts are few and far between, and Blackberry did little to encourage adoption. Now that they’ve dodged an acquisition that would have taken them private, and ditched the CEO that brought them to this point, their new CEO sat down with Crackberry to discuss the future of Blackberry.
Among other things, he spoke about Android. More to the point, new CEO John Chen spoke to whether or not Blackberry would begin making Android devices:
It’s way too early for me to make an informed statement on that. It would be very, very premature. Whatever is the right thing for the business, you need to preserve the reason why BlackBerry is around. I think just jumping to an Android without a thought through of why BlackBerry needs to be around and what makes us relevant and all that, before I answer that question, jumping to anything is inappropriate. You’ll find that I’m a little bit more thoughtful from a marketing perspective then to just go somewhere. I’m not that kind of person. I’ve only been on the clock now for almost 24 hours — I think that if I made those statements right now conclusively, somebody should pull me out and shoot me.
While not a swearing off, it’s not quite an endorsement either. In these circumstances, the incoming CEO often has insight as to the game plan moving forward. Chen is either stealthy and coy, or Blackberry is as dead in the water as we imagined.
What would be the point ?….No thank you. I like my BlackBerry 10 too much to switch it to an android product. I’d go Apple before I’d go Android, but thank goodness, I don’t have to…because BlackBerry isn’t dead and it isn’t switching.
Too many Androids out there now…we need competition…not an Android monopoly.
Blackberry is dead. I get not joy on it because the thousand of jobs and families left with no sustent. But lets face reality: BB is a zombie just waiting the last shot in the head.
They did bad decisions, they were unable to adapt to new environments and new markets. They were too slow to fight competition and they were too dumb to use they market advantage.
You hit blackberry for the lay-offs, and yet you want it to completely go away? Not sure that will give people more job opportunities.
Fire this guy please. Android is their last and only option…. If they don’t, remember what happened to palm?
They dont need to ditch BB10, just port over android apps like they planned a few years back.
I think the BB10 interface is fantastic, but without an app selection EVERY smartphone is doomed to fail.