CEO John Chen reiterates company’s commitment to Blackberry 10

By Julian Chokkattu January 11, 2016

blackberry commitment to 2016 priv fitness — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Blackberry didn’t really make any major announcements about its mobile division at CES 2016 last week, and that may have called into question its commitment to Blackberry 10 — an issue CEO John Chen took to a blog post to address.

At a meeting at CES in Las Vegas, Chen announced that the Priv would land on Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon soon, and will see expanded international availability. But the company had little to discuss about its own operating system or if we’ll see any devices running Blackberry 10 any time soon.

The answer? We still don’t know. In the post, entitled “Showing Out Commitment to Blackberry 10 at CES 2016,” Chen says Blackberry enthusiasts can “look forward to many security and privacy enhancements in 2016.”

“The coming version 10.3.3 will be certified for NIAP compliance, meaning it will have passed the strictest government-grade security tests, enabling us to further support our government and regulated customers who use BlackBerry 10 devices and demand the highest levels of security,” Chen said. “We are also planning a version 10.3.4 for later this year with even more security improvements.”

Apart from “security updates.” Chen mentioned another Android-powered device to launch this year — quite possibly the rumored Blackberry Vienna. Surely Blackberry 10 fans will be disappointed to learn that their dear OS is only getting some security updates and nothing more in 2016? It’s hardly a promising note for the platform, and gives credence to the idea of Blackberry ditching the OS completely and opting for Android-only devices.

It could also be that the company is trying to use the Priv and its upcoming Android device to put Blackberry back in the spotlight — creating an opportunity for future Blackberry 10 devices and updates.

The rumored Vienna is said to sport an always-present physical keyboard and a brushed metal finish. Check our page on the Vienna for future updates.

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Julian Chokkattu

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…

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