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Re:Blackberry might switch to Android as OS by JoshTriplett on Friday June 12, 2015 @12:02AM (#9703970)
If they manage to sell an up-to-date Android device with a keyboard, there's a substantial market of people who want one.
Re:Blackberry might switch to Android as OS by macspoofing on Friday June 12, 2015 @12:11AM (#9704007)
Is there?
Re:Blackberry might switch to Android as OS by cwyers on Friday June 12, 2015 @12:15AM (#9704019)
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.
Re:Blackberry might switch to Android as OS by JoshTriplett on Friday June 12, 2015 @12:56AM (#9704137)
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.
Re:Blackberry might switch to Android as OS by cwyers on Friday June 12, 2015 @01:06AM (#9704168)
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.