In attempts to boost the popularity of its BlackBerry line of smartphones and increase their declining sales, Research In Motion is planning to make it possible for users to run applications from Google’s Android platform on the phone models which are expected to be released next year, according to some people who are familiar with the internal functioning of the company.
The sources stated that the BlackBerry phones which will be based on the new platform from RIM, QNX, will be compatible with Android; however, the sources preferred to stay anonymous as this information isn’t public yet. RIM has announced that it expects to release the QNX based phones in early 2012.
RIM has planned to rebuild the whole range of BlackBerry devices around the QNX operating system and is in turn looking to offer new features along with it which will appeal to the users who have started to grow impatient with the aging portfolio of the BlackBerry and the small number of apps available for the platform.
Google’s Android Market offers around 250,000 applications for the Android platform, which is almost six times the number available for BlackBerry, which is one of the biggest factors in Android’s ascent to the top of the mobile market.
An analyst named Steven Li said that if the BlackBerry devices are able to run apps from Android, it will be a huge addition as it will effectively address many concerns that its users have with the BlackBerry devices. RIM has introduced a number of new smartphones in the last week or so, which are also the first phones it has released in almost a year.
This period of silence has led the company to lose considerable share in the smartphone market. During the second quarter, its global smartphone market share went down to 12% from the 19% which it possessed a year ago. In the same period both Apple and Android went up to 18% and 43% respectively.
Even as RIM has publicly announced that the PlayBook tablet based on QNX will be capable of running Android Apps, it hasn’t yet announced the same for QNX based phones. A spokeswoman for RIM, Marisa Conway, refused to comment on the matter. One of the sources said that BlackBerry phones will use the same Android App player that has been built for the tablet, and that the software is currently being reengineered for fitting the different resolutions and screen sizes for the different models of BlackBerry smartphones.
