Anyone out there still using a BlackBerry smartphone? You may not be but I know there are a few people who are still fans of BlackBerry and its devices.
BlackBerry jumped into the Android ecosystem with the hopes of reviving its dying brand but this has not happened so far. The company has a few Android devices on the market including the BlackBerry Priv, DTEK60 and DTEK50. Those using the BlackBerry Priv have enjoyed timely updates but unfortunately it looks like they will not be getting the next major one, Android 8.0 Oreo.
This was revealed by Alex Thurber who is the General Manager of BlackBerry Mobile Solutions. He revealed this in an interview with UTB Blogs saying that it is difficult to get its partners in line to push such a huge update. This is quite disappointing since the BlackBerry Priv is not even running Android 7.0 Nougat. The device was updated to Android Marshmallow from Lollipop last year and this was not an easy move by the company. This is the reason why the company never upgraded the device to Android Nougat and it has no plans of doing so anytime soon.
The BlackBerry Priv was released back in October 2015 so it is not that old. It has been around for less than two years and I am sure users were expecting it to be supported for a much longer, at least with Android 7.0 Nougat which was released back in 2016. I have to say that I think this is disappointing for BlackBerry Priv owners and does not look good for BlackBerry. Getting the latest Android iterations is important for most users.
As for the other BlackBerry devices running Android, the DTEK phones to be specific, things are slightly different. These were meant to be experimental devices for the company to see how its collaboration with TCL turned out. The company says that this collaboration turned out great but these are also not easy to support either.
Even with that said, Thurber has said that BlackBerry will continue supporting the DTEK 50, DTEK 60 and even the BlackBerry KEYone with minor security updates for now. From the look of things, these devices will not be getting Android Oreo update anytime soon.
Also Read: Android Oreo Is Currently Rolling Out To All Supported Nexus And Pixel Devices
