BlackBerry Venice rumors: Will it run on Android?, Ecumenical News

BlackBerry is reportedly gearing up to release a slider phone with Android OS, codenamed BlackBerry Venice.

The listing clears shows us that the number of units are very few and thus it may be that the company might have given the smartphones to its very own employees to test. BlackBerry itself briefly teased a phone with a slide-out keyboard at Mobile World Congress in March, but that device appeared to be running the BlackBerry 10 operating system. The new image shows the handset with without the sliding keyboard.

Blackberry seems to have finally shed all qualms about the Android and is ready to hog the platform. A horizontal speaker is located at the bottom and there are dedicated Send and End keys, most likely because the device will be running Android instead of the BB10 OS.

The new BlackBerry appears to have a dual-edge display that resembles the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge’s and it’s called BlackBerry Venice-or at least that is its codename. According to earlier reports, BlackBerry will unveil Venice, the first BlackBerry device to come with Android pre installed, in the fall of 2015, though there has been no official confirmation. Despite being the pioneer of the smart phone, Blackberry’s market share is now less that 1%.

Now leakster Evan Blass, aka @evleaks, has stated on Twitter that BlackBerry’s Android-powered Venice smartphone was on its way to AT&T.

The Blackberry Passport with its classic, physical keyboard. The new design of the phone will also increase its thickness, but we’ve heard rumors that BlackBerry is embracing that compromise and adding to it: a massive battery and virtually no bezels on the top, bottom, or the sides of the phone. What are your thoughts on a BlackBerry Android smartphone?

Being an Android phone, BlackBerry Venice will run all Android apps. Zach Epstein at BGR projected that the device “will probably be a disaster”, not only because “only a couple of global vendors have managed to make money” with Android, but also because the phone is expected to debut around November, “right around the time Apple and Samsung kick their multi-billion dollar marketing campaigns into overdrive”.