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They will selling yet another Android phone, and that isn't good for margins.

TTPrograms 11y ago
They could fork and focus on stability, performance and security. Throw in a physical keyboard and some enterprise software subscriptions and it could differentiate pretty well. Then they have the added benefit of access to the Android app market instead of competing to reach critical mass on their own app market.
- afarrell 11y ago
  I wonder if they could create their own android app market that had a more rigorous audit process.
bdcravens 11y ago
Those who carry BB's do it for the messaging. Android options with a high quality keyboard are slim to none. Heck, if they created a version of their keyboard for the iPhone, they'd sell like crazy. (not the first iphone kb, but would the first BB keyboard for the iphone)
JoshTriplett 11y ago
If they manage to sell an up-to-date Android device with a keyboard, there's a substantial market of people who want one.
- macspoofing 11y ago
  Is there?
  - cwyers 11y ago
    I don't really think so. It's a market that a lot of the big Android vendors were in at one point and got out of. There's some demand for it, but I think it's a more vocal market segment than it is sizeable.
    - JoshTriplett 11y ago
      Android vendors got out of that market for two reasons: because omitting a hardware keyboard makes it easier to compete on screen size, and because hardware keyboards require hardware localization. However, Blackberry's original target market was people who wanted to take their email on the road, and their remaining users are far more likely than most to want to hold onto their keyboards.
      - cwyers 11y ago
        Blackberry's remaining users are a rounding error. If Blackberry could make money selling phones to their remaining users they wouldn't be thinking of making Android devices. Blackberry would need to find some way to sell Android phones to people who are using either Android or iOS devices now or to people who are still using feature phones. Either way, I don't think that the keyboard is the big differentiator that will let them do better than LG or Sony or HTC, or even help them catch up to those.

They could fork and focus on stability, performance and security. Throw in a physical keyboard and some enterprise software subscriptions and it could differentiate pretty well. Then they have the added benefit of access to the Android app market instead of competing to reach critical mass on their own app market.

afarrell 11y ago
I wonder if they could create their own android app market that had a more rigorous audit process.

bdcravens 11y ago

Those who carry BB's do it for the messaging. Android options with a high quality keyboard are slim to none. Heck, if they created a version of their keyboard for the iPhone, they'd sell like crazy. (not the first iphone kb, but would the first BB keyboard for the iphone)

JoshTriplett 11y ago

If they manage to sell an up-to-date Android device with a keyboard, there's a substantial market of people who want one.

macspoofing 11y ago
Is there?
- cwyers 11y ago
  I don't really think so. It's a market that a lot of the big Android vendors were in at one point and got out of. There's some demand for it, but I think it's a more vocal market segment than it is sizeable.
  - JoshTriplett 11y ago
    Android vendors got out of that market for two reasons: because omitting a hardware keyboard makes it easier to compete on screen size, and because hardware keyboards require hardware localization. However, Blackberry's original target market was people who wanted to take their email on the road, and their remaining users are far more likely than most to want to hold onto their keyboards.
    - cwyers 11y ago
      Blackberry's remaining users are a rounding error. If Blackberry could make money selling phones to their remaining users they wouldn't be thinking of making Android devices. Blackberry would need to find some way to sell Android phones to people who are using either Android or iOS devices now or to people who are still using feature phones. Either way, I don't think that the keyboard is the big differentiator that will let them do better than LG or Sony or HTC, or even help them catch up to those.