It seems even BlackBerry has fallen out of love with its own mobile operating system.
BlackBerry plans to launch two new Android smartphones before the end of the year.
The new devices were revealed by BlackBerry CEO John Chen during an interview with The National.
According to Chen, both handsets will fall in the mid-range category, which means they won’t technically sit as successors to last year’s Google-powered BlackBerry Priv.
Chen is quoted as saying that the Priv “was too high-end a product”, commenting on BlackBerry’s recent revelation that it only sold 600,000 Priv handsets, far below the 850,000 forecast.
“The fact that we came out with a high-end phone [as our first Android device] was probably not as wise as it should have been,” said Chen.
He continued: “A lot of enterprise customers have said to us, ‘I want to buy your phone but $700 is a little too steep for me. I’m more interested in a $400 device.”
Related: Best Android Smartphones 2016
The BlackBerry Priv is a keyboard-slider Android smartphone that was first announced on September 25 last year.
The device was officially released for sale on November 6 that same year but despite receiving significant media attention, failed to meet BlackBerry’s sales expectations.
What did you think of the BlackBerry Priv? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
