BlackBerry (BBRY, Tech30) has struggled mightily in the past few years. It lost subscribers, sales and a boatload of money because it didn't fully commit itself to the touchscreen, app-centric world we're all accustomed to.
BlackBerry now lags Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and the army of companies that make phones which run on Google's (GOOGL,Tech30) Android mobile operating system in global smartphone market share. Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) -- thanks to its Windows Phone OS -- is ahead of BlackBerry too.
The stock is down more than 25% so far in 2015 and nearly 90% in the past five years!
So the pressure is on BlackBerry to launch a phone that consumers might actually want.
CEO John Chen hinted in several interviews last month that BlackBerry may stop making phones if it can't sell 5 million of them a year. That's the level he thinks is necessary for the hardware business to be profitable.
So BlackBerry has done something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago -- it's selling a phone that runs on another operating system.
The Priv is an Android phone.
Yes, it still has a slide-out keyboard with actual buttons for the CrackBerry addicts. But you can use a touchscreen too.
And because it runs on Android, Priv owners will have access to many more apps than they would on a typical BlackBerry phone.
The Priv is -- for now -- only available on AT&T's (T, Tech30) network in the United States. It's selling for $249.99 with a two-year contract and $699.99 without a contract.
It is also available in BlackBerry's home turf of Canada and will soon launch in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany as well.
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