While the rumors of a BlackBerry smartphone running pure Android continue to increase on the interwebs, BlackBerry CEO John Chen remains silent on the subject.
As far as Chen would go was to hint there may be more to it than just sticking stock Android on BlackBerry hardware.
Chen did acknowledge that his company’s recent handsets have not fared as well as he had hoped, in part due to a lack of applications for the devices.
“By any definition it is not a runaway success,†Chen said.
One of the big problems, he noted, is that there just aren’t enough apps for the devices, even with the inclusion of Amazon’s Android app store.
“It’s not competitive to Google Play or the iTunes store,†he said. “We’re working hard at that.â€Â
Chen repeated what he has said many times, that he wants to stay in the handset business, but his patience for losing money is not unlimited. Ominously, he reveals he has a timeline for when he will stop producing handsets if they are not making money.
“If I can’t make money on the phone, I will be out of that telephone handset business,†Chen said in an interview.
“There is a timeline; I won’t tell you when.â€Â
You can read the full interview here.
