Saturday, August 29, 2015

@evleaks says Blackberry Venice running Android is coming - Why a switch to Google Android will not improve Blackberry Sales

There are rumours abroad that suggest that Blackberry may debut an Android smartphone as reported in the article “BlackBerry Venice phone, running Android, said to arrive in November”, published August 19, 2015 by Lance Whitney, CNET News. 

This is based on a post on the twitter account of reliable leaker Evan Blass, aka @evleaks, on Wednesday August 19th 2015:


His tweet shows rendering of the Android smartphone, codenamed Venice, running Google Android 5.0 Lollipop.  He also posted Tweets with videos that purported to show a Blackberry running Google Android:




So is @evleaks telling the truth? Or is this just Social Media hocus pocus?

Evaluating the @evleaks posts - Blackberry codenamed Venice might be a new Blackberry

Considering that Google Android 6.0 Marshmallow is set to launch sometime in September 2015 as predicted in my blog article entitled “Google Android M is Marshmallow - Why LG, Motorola, HTC, Xiaomi might switch to Samsung Pay in AI Awakening in 2016”, this information is a little dated.

This Venice device looks a lot like the Blackberry Passport that had launched on AT&T Network in February 2015 as reported in my blog article entitled “US$649.99 Blackberry Passport and US$419.99 Blackberry Classic - Why Americans are ready to fall in love with Blackberry”  .

Even the specs are similar albeit slightly bigger than those of the Blackberry Passport as listed in my blog article entitled “US$599 Blackberry Passport Launched - How Blackberry Blend Remote Access may trump Apple Pay Wallet in the US of A”. 

1.      Google Android 5.0 Lollipop
2.      5.4" screen
3.      2,560x1,440 pixel resolution QHD LCD screen
4.      3GB of RAM

So this may be evidence of a new Blackberry and it possibly might be running Google Android.  Is there any other  evidence that Blackberry has turned to the Dark side....er..I mean switched to Google Android?

Unfortunately yes!

Blackberry Passport spotted running Android - Why a switch to Google Android will not improve Blackberry Sales

In fact, there is even a video, released on Monday August 24th 2015 showing  Google Android 5.0 Lollipop running on a Blackberry Passport as reported in the article “BlackBerry Passport shown running Android in new video”, published August 24, 2015 By Chris Welch, The Verge.


This recent video as well as the @evleaks suggests Google Play will be the App Store used by this alleged device, implying that Blackberry may be augmenting it with their own app store. Blackberry Hub will also be on the new device, making viewing of your emails text messages and Social Media ports on any device possible.   

Content Transfer will also be available on the new device, making this still a comfortable transition for lovers of Blackberry who had defected to Google Android.




Based on the appearance of the renderings in the @evleaks photo which may have been from a presentation, it would appear that the Blackberry Venice will have the same look and feel of a typical Blackberry Smartphone.

However, it would have Google Android 5.0 Lollipop  as the underlying OS, with a Blackberry themed skin as pointed out in the article “New BlackBerry Venice leak hints that BlackBerry 10 could be used as an Android skin”, published Aug 22 2015 by Alan F., PhoneArena.

So it’s possible that Blackberry may indeed by planning a Blackberry Android smartphone, especially as they've not released any new smartphones since the Blackberry Classic back in December 2014 as pointed out in the article “BlackBerry's Android device one step closer to reality”, published AUGUST 21, 2015 by  Jason Cipriani, Fortune.

So where do I personally stand as it relates to the possibility of a Blackberry powered by Google Android?

Bad decision by Blackberry - Android has Fragmentation and Security problems during Global smartphone slowdown

I'm not in support of this change of OS, as Blackberry seems to be selling itself short by succumbing of popularity of Android.

Especially given Android’s current security problems such as StageFright and Certifi-Gate as explained in my blog article entitled “Check Point Software Technologies discover Certifi-gate – How to Control an Android Lollipop smartphone and Why fragmentation is at fault”.

Yes, Android is winning in terms of global sales overall, according to the stats from IDC in the article “Here's why the iPhone isn't going to catch up to Android any time soon”, published Aug. 26, 2015, by Rob Price, Business Insider UK. 

But their popularity is also resulting in severe fragmentation of their OS, with millions of devices running different versions of Google Android.  Not to mention Global smartphone sales are slowing down due to most markets being saturated with smartphones, possibly except for India, the Middle East, Russia and North Korea!

This is due to competition among OEM (Original Equiptment Manufacturers) and an unwillingness among customers to upgrade to a new device on a yearly update cycle as pointed out in my Geezam blog article entitled “Why Android Fragmentation Worsens as Apple iOS 8 adoption almost complete”.

Focus should be on launching more smartphones in India, China and other regions where smartphone penetration and growth potential exist. The use of a lower security OS just because the consumer market loves an OS made popular by the OEM's usage of Google's free OS is not good decision.

I fear that this will not produce the desired result, as smartphone sales are slowing down globally indicates bearish times for Google Android.




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