From InfoWorld: Beleaguered smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry could go Android with its next device, abandoning development of its own platform in the interest of getting a more robust ecosystem of apps into the hands of its few remaining users, according to a report from Reuters.
Citing anonymous sources, the news agency said that the idea is to transform BlackBerry into a software and services company, centered on the existing BES12 mobility management system designed to work across Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices, in addition to BlackBerry’s own.
The first Android-powered BlackBerry, according to Reuters, could be a hybrid smartphone that can be used either with a regular touchscreen or with a slide-open physical keyboard. That device, which BlackBerry teased at this year’s Mobile World Congress without mentioning its OS, may be set for release this fall.
BlackBerry OS 10, the company’s own mobile operating system, has failed to recapture the market share lost to Android and iOS over the past half-decade. Based on the real-time QNX operating system, which BlackBerry acquired in 2010, BBOS 10 has even integrated Android app compatibility (technically, Amazon.com's Fire OS version of Android apps) in recent versions in an attempt to address the relative lack of native apps available for the platform.
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