Blackberry’s next Android smartphone might not be made by Blackberry at all
For all the struggles the Waterloo company has suffered in recent years, one thing that you couldn’t take away from Blackberry was that they created some great hardware. That trend arguably continued with the BlackBerry PRIV (but it being severely overpriced didn’t help its chances of success).
Will Blackberry knock it out of the park for the mid-ranger they have planned for next month? We were hoping so, but the company actually might not be responsible for making the device at all. Recent WiFi Certification documents containing evidence that Alcatel, not Blackberry, will make the next Blackberry device.
The product listing below — which lists TCL Communications (or Alcatel) as the responsible company — shows it to be a DTEK 50 product. DTEK is the same codename of the privacy suite that ships on Android-based BlackBerry phones. Furthermore, the model number shown in that listing is STH100-2, which is all too similar to the PRIV’s STV100-1 model number for us to believe this is a mere coincidence.
The device in question — which is slated to have a Snapdragon 615 chipset — could be based on Alcatel’s Idol 4 smartphone, at least in the way of internal specs. We certainly aren’t hoping to see a carbon copy of that phone with BlackBerry’s logo punched into it.
Alcatel’s Idol 4
But even if Alcatel does make a completely original device for BlackBerry, we’re sure this news isn’t pleasant to hear for anyone hoping the company has solid plans to return to former glory. Of course, with a company as down on their luck and financially unstable as BlackBerry we suppose they’ll try anything to turn the ship around.
[Twitter via Crackberry]