BlackBerry "Venice" - These look pretty real to me!
What's the hype about? First off, it's not hype: BlackBerry have been rumoured to have been working on a new phone that could run Android apps for many months now. The company has been keen to keep things relatively quiet, but Android fans have been speculating away until the cows come home about this potentially exciting new mobile.
The more that the rumours were (almost) confirmed, the more details kept on surfacing.
What now appears to be an operational handset running what appears to be an only slightly modified version of Android has been seen in several photos recently.
The other main rumour was that this new mobile would have a physical BlackBerry keyboard - which must surely be the truth after hearing the rumours and seeing the photos!
On one hand, this is an exciting new direction for BlackBerry: Their falling sales have continued for years, and they have been unable to innovate their way out of a corner.
Even Windows Phone has overtaken BlackBerry in worldwide sales.
I was worried that this would be just another BlackBerry that would run some Android apps. Just enough to whet the appetite of some people, but not enough to make BlackBerry a viable operating system for many.
It appears that BlackBerry might have taken their best bits, and combined them with a slightly skinned version of Android - If this works, it will be a big thing.
This is a BlackBerry after all, and I am incredibly pleased to see a hardware QWERTY keyboard on this phone. Android (in fact every smartphone operating system) needs some handsets which have this essential feature. I almost ditched my Android phones earlier this year in favour of a cheap BlackBerry Curve from eBay, just so that I didn't have to put up with swiping autocorrect hell.
The specs of the BlackBerry "Venice" are still sketchy, but this does sound like it will be a high-end device.
Whilst I welcome this device openly (what can I really dislike about a keyboard-touting Android phone?), I don't know what market this phone will really target.
I'm sure that some business customers will love it. A friend at work loves his BlackBerry Passport, due to its ability to handle spreadsheets, but on asking him how many spreadsheets he actually uses, he couldn't give me a definitive answer.
I don't know how many consumers will buy the BlackBerry Venice purely for the keyboard. It's a big selling point, but is it enough to pull these customers away from Samsung? I'm not convinced.
For me, the biggest issue is the as yet unmentioned price. This is going to be an expensive mobile. Top end BlackBerrys are (even the Curve range of handsets was pricey by comparison), so BlackBerry might be poised to crash and burn with this mobile as soon as it's launched.
- I hope that this isn't the case; BlackBerry deserves to do well by launching a good product and innovating. By innovating, I actually mean that they have done something that they should have done years ago.
Is there going to be a sea-change, because of this phone? For BlackBerry, this could be the turning point. It won't save them, but if it actually works, then there is a possibility that they could move on from here.
As for the other manufacturers, maybe they will start to move away from black, slabby 5 inch plus smartphones, and maybe we will see a few physical keyboards gracing Android mobiles.
This venture into Android territory could also herald a new beginning for Nokia, when they eventually get free reign to start designing mobiles again - Whilst I love Windows Phone (and it's a damn shame that Nokia was hampered, and then killed off by Microsoft), there's no doubt that Nokia will at least play with the concept of creating an Android phone at some point in the next couple of years.
One thing that may be against the BlackBerry Venice is its sliding form factor - I know that BlackBerry are very behind the times, but sliding phones? The last time I had a sliding phone was 2008, when they were really popular!
I actually hated the sliding form factor: It killed off flip phones and made candybar mobiles bulky and awkward to use. I'm guessing that the slide out keyboard on the BlackBerry Venice will make the screen/body of the phone top heavy.
Maybe a horizontal sliding keyboard would be a better option - Mobile phone designers please take note.
