BlackBerry’s smartphone future riding on new Priv

The future of BlackBerry’s smartphone business may very well be sitting in your hands later this week.

The BlackBerry Priv, the company’s first Android device, marks what could be a last- ditch attempt by the Waterloo, Ont.- based developer to create a phone popular enough to save its struggling hardware division.

If the Priv doesn’t sell, it’s almost certain BlackBerry will pull the plug on designing phones after a series of sales flops whittled down its thriving device business into a money- losing operation.

“BlackBerry’s handset business rides on the success or failure of the Priv,” said technology analyst Carmi Levy. “If this device doesn’t turn the sales tide around, expect a quick decision in the new year.”

After being pummelled by the likes of Apple and Samsung, BlackBerry is doing what some of its critics say should have happened years ago: appealing to existing smartphone trends instead of fighting against them.

For first time in its history, BlackBerry will be selling a phone beginning Friday that doesn’t run on its own operating system, using Google’s Android system instead.

It’s a compromise with the mainstream on almost every level. On the surface, its larger touch screen evokes the design of most smartphones on the market, while a slider keyboard caters to more traditional BlackBerry users who still favour one of the company’s most beloved features.

In naming the device Priv — short for privacy and privilege — the company hopes to tap into a conversation about how we unknowingly share our personal details with third parties through various phone apps.

BlackBerry promises the Priv will help users learn exactly who is accessing their information by monitoring the legitimacy of apps and outlining how many times services like Facebook and free games log details like GPS co- ordinates, access image files or activate the microphone.

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

BlackBerry put off calls to build a phone on the Android for years, despite appeals from some analysts to abandon what they considered was a tunnel- vision perspective.

Using the world’s most popular operating system resolves one of the biggest setbacks of the company’s most recent models: a lack of apps that set it miles behind other phones that could stream Netflix, post on Instagram and interact through Snapchat.

Over the coming weeks, BlackBerry will unveil a marketing campaign throughout the crucial holiday shopping season.