BlackBerry’s Priv will set firm’s smartphone future

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.

After being pummelled by the likes of Apple and Samsung, BlackBerry is doing what some of its critics say should’ve 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.

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.

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.

BlackBerry executives had tried to overcome the hurdle, but with every year it became harder to ignore how quickly the company was falling short of what people expected from their phones.

When John Chen joined the company in late 2013, one of his first priorities was saving the company from its own app disaster.

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

Over the coming weeks, BlackBerry will unveil a marketing campaign it says forgoes the traditional launch event in favour of spending on advertising throughout the crucial holiday shopping season.