BlackBerry To Launch Two Mid-Range Android Phones This Year

By Liezl Dunuan, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, April 12, 2016

After admitting that the pricing for its first Android phone, the BlackBerry Priv, was "not as wise as it should have been," BlackBerry CEO John Chen has announced that it will come out with two mid-ranger handsets this year, according to a report in Ars Technica.

Chen said that they were hearing what their customers were telling them after they released the Priv. According to Ars Technica, Chen said that "a lot of enterprise customers" were saying "I want to buy your phone, but $700 is a little too steep for me. I'm more interested in a $400 device."

The Priv is a high-end device which has a physical keyboard and an onscreen keyboard as well. Sales of Priv units were not as good as the company expected, which did not bode well for the company's performance as well. According to a BBC News report, sales fell by almost $200 million from December 2015 until the end of February. Chen also cited that their decision to come out with a high-end phone with a high-end price was not a wise one. BlackBerry devices have been a popular choice among enterprise users because of its security features so the move to make more affordable handsets will likely mean better sales, according to the BBC News report.

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The only detail that Chen revealed about the upcoming devices is that one will have a physical keyboard while another will have an onscreen keyboard. Both will run on Android. According to The Verge, there are rumors that these devices are already under development and are codenamed the Rome and the Hamburg. The latest leak features some blurry images of the two rumored phones which did not reveal much either.

The Verge also cited that these devices will be BlackBerry's final attempt to keep its hardware business, as it has been experiencing dwindling sales since the Android boom and declining technical and software support for its devices that run on its proprietary OS, the BB10.