Stakes high as BlackBerry releases 1st Android device

The future of BlackBerry's smartphone business may verywell be sitting in your hands later this week.

The BlackBerry Priv, the company's first Android device, markswhat could be a last-ditch attempt by the Waterloo,Ont.-baseddeveloper to create a phone popular enough to save its strugglinghardware division.

• BlackBerry PRIV Android phone could be company's last, says analyst

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If the Priv doesn't sell, it's almost certain BlackBerry willpull the plug on designing phones after a series of sales flopswhittled down its thriving device business into a money-losingoperation.

"BlackBerry's handset business rides on the success or failureof the Priv," said technology analyst Carmi Levy."If this device doesn't turn the sales tide around, expect aquick decision in the new year."

BlackBerryembracestrends

After being pummeled by the likes of Apple and Samsung,BlackBerry is doing what some of its critics say should'vehappenedyears ago: appealing to existing smartphone trends instead offighting against them.

For first time in its history, BlackBerry will be selling a phonebeginning Friday that doesn't run on its own operatingsystem, usingGoogle's Android system instead.

It's a compromise with the mainstream on almost every level. Onthe surface, its larger touch screen evokes the design of mostsmartphones on the market, while a slider keyboard caters to moretraditional BlackBerry users who still favourone of the company'smost beloved features.

In naming the device Priv -- short for privacy and privilege -- thecompany hopes to tap into a conversation about howwe unknowinglyshare our personal details with third parties through various phoneapps.

BlackBerry promises the Priv will help users learn exactly who isaccessing their information by monitoring thelegitimacy of apps andoutlining how many times services like Facebook and free games logdetails like GPS co-ordinates, access image files or activate themicrophone.

Whether those selling features are enough to lure back former"CrackBerry" users remains to be seen.

Android means more apps

BlackBerry put off calls to build a phone on the Android foryears, despite appeals from some analysts to abandon what theyconsidered was a tunnel-vision perspective that ignored some of thebiggest failures of its own devices.

Using the world's most popular operating system resolves one ofthe biggest setbacks of the company's most recentmodels: a lack ofapps that set it miles behind other phones that could streamNetflix, post on Instagram and interact through Snapchat.

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BlackBerry executives had tried to overcome the hurdle, but withevery year it became harder to ignore how quickly thecompany wasfalling short of what people expected from their phones.

When John Chen joined the company in late 2013, one of his firstpriorities was saving the company from its own app disaster."I was swimming uphill against the application people," he saidin late September. "Eventually it didn't matter how hard I tried."

After a partnership with Amazon's app store failed to completelysolve the app shortage, Chen was faced with breakingone ofBlackBerry's cardinal rules which resisted saddling up to acompetitor's operating system.

We're doing everything we can to make hardware a profitablebusiness.- MartyBeard, BlackBerrychief operatingofficer

But putting the pride of BlackBerry aside wasn't easy. Thedecision was "highly contested and debated" by employees,Chensaid.

One former insider at the company, who was not authorized tospeak about BlackBerry's internal operations, said employees wereconcerned that making an Android phone would result in widespreadlayoffs -- a fear that he saysbegan to prove true when BlackBerryslashed its development staff over the summer.

After an ugly transition period, the Priv arrives in storesnearly two years after concepts for the device began to take shape.

Priv advertising targets holiday shoppers

Over the coming weeks, BlackBerry will unveil a marketingcampaign it says forgoes the traditional launch event infavour ofspending on advertising throughout the crucial holiday shoppingseason.

The goal of boosting BlackBerry sales could prove a hugechallenge against a slate of high-end devices from industrygiants,particularly Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy.

This year, sales of a variety of cheaper phones, like Google'sNexus, Sony and LG, have also picked up momentum,and that couldmake it harder for BlackBerry to pitch a compelling case to investin its pricier device, whichlists for $899 at BlackBerry's Canadianweb store without a carrier contract.

Last chance for BlackBerry devices

If the Priv doesn't sell, BlackBerry would likely scale back itsstaff even further and pivot attention to its softwarelicensing andservices division.

Chief operating officer Marty Beard said BlackBerry executiveshave been focused on ensuring that doesn't happen.

"We're doing everything we can to make hardware a profitablebusiness, of which meeting our business caseobjectives for Priv isa very important part," he said."We have a down-to-the-penny view on what we need to achievewith Priv and we're very focused on that."

While Beard wouldn't provide presales figures, he said advanceorders for the Priv have been "much" better than thePassport,Classic and Leap devices.

Executives have also emphasized that despite pairing withAndroid, the company isn't abandoning its BlackBerry 10 operatingsystem. It plans to offer new updates in early 2016.

Before the middle of next year, Chen needs to make a few bigdecisions, including whether there's still hope in making BlackBerryphones a viable business.

While outsiders might be skeptical, the CEO said he's confidentthe hardware division can still become profitable.

"It's doable," he said. "Otherwise we wouldn't be doing it."