Blackberry and Android usually don't go together in one sentence, but that's about to change. The shrieks and awe built around the prospect of a Blackberry smartphone running Android is in full force this week after the revelation that BlackBerry has purchased two Android-centric domain names: AndroidSecured.com and AndroidSecured.net.
Back in February, Blackberry announced a partnership with Google to allow the search giant's suite of mobile productivity tools to run on the smart phone maker's device management system, but the new
AndroidSecured.com page reveals more details about the alliance. The site redirects to a page on BlackBerry.com marked with the iconic BlackBerry logo and Android logo sandwiching a plus sign, and headlined by the words "Bring Android to Work."
The discovered BlackBerry.com page confirms that BES12 will support Android devices, and it has started a lot of chatter about the possibility of a huge partnership between BlackBerry and Android. The
two companies are working together to marry BlackBerry's BES12 enterprise device deployment service and new security features in Android 5.0 Lollipop for increased mobile security, better device
management, and easier deployment of enterprise apps for Android devices.
Lollipop and BES12
"BlackBerry and Google are working closely together to set new standards in enterprise mobile security for organizations deploying Android devices," according to the page, which goes on to further
argue that Android Lollipop and BES12 are "better together."
Blackberry has seen better days, after the Canadian company reported that it sold 1.1 million smart phones during the last quarter - 0.5 million less than in the previous quarter. So we can expect that such a move on BlackBerry's part as a last-ditch effort and a way to reclaim its former glory from the disastrous touchscreen Storm handset (total flop).
This news is most certainly exciting for Hilary Clinton (secure sexts to Bill), and we're excited too! Not only do we miss using the crackberry BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) feature, but also this means a
high-end BlackBerry Android device to replace our need for two phones (work and personal). Possibly bringing a Quad HD curved display and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a six-core Snapdragon 808 processor.
BES12 already comes with support for Lollipop, and features like end-to-end security, global support, and the ability to lock down certain assets on any corporate device are already built-in. With this
new partnership, BES12 will also integrate with Google Play for Work, with increased focus on application management.
Blackberry's M.O. has always been that its phones are built for work, for security, for pushing out a few more words-per-minute with that hardware keyboard. The hardware has always been great, but besides that, the software needs some major help. On the other end, one of Android's shortcoming is its platform for security, so it makes sense why they're partnering with BlackBerry in order to directly address that. This is a big win for both sides.
Google will get a boost to its security ecosystem (not to mention access to a huge new batch of enterprise customers) and BlackBerry will get an Android-based fan base to help boost their sales.
