According to a report from CNBC, the team behind the secure Blackphone handset is preparing a secure tablet. The tablet will be a high-end model powered by the proprietary PrivatOS, which is a forked version of Android used on the company’s phones.
CNBC spoke to Jon Callas, who is the CTO of Silent Circle, one of the companies behind the Blackphone. The latter was launched in January offering users secure calls, texts and video chats. A “Wi-Fi manager” prevents your phone from being tracked, and an ad-blocker prevents targeted pop-up ads from reaching your browser.
The Blackphone tablet, like the phone, will not offer the Google Play Store. While the lack of the Google services might hurt sales, many current and potential Blackphone customers consider Google services to be one of the largest collectors of data in the industry.
Callas said that Blackphone will soon announce the addition of one of the major app stores, and users will be able to install apps like Facebook. But making data-collecting apps available would eliminate the security benefits of using a Blackphone handset or tablet.
“The first challenge is whether it would have a big distribution and sell to enough consumers. The second challenge is brand awareness and the third challenge is whether consumers would want to pay extra for that extra security.”-Neil Mawston, mobile analyst, Strategy Analytics.
Callas did not reveal a launch date, or pricing for the tablet but the expectations is of a high price.[signoff predefined=”Enjoy this?” icon=”icon-users”][/signoff]
