BlackBerry has launched its first ever touchscreen-only Android handset\u00a0in what could be a last-ditch attempt to keep a hand in the smartphone market.<\/p>\n
Last year saw the launch of the Priv<\/a>, the first of its handsets to work on the Android operating system, but it\u00a0failed to make an impact on a market dominated by Apple and Samsung – the\u00a0SIM-only handset price of \u00a3569 didn’t help either.<\/p>\n So will\u00a0the Dtek50 succeed where both the Priv and the Z10 failed?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Dtek50 handset will run on the Android operating system as\u00a0BlackBerry looks to phase out the BB10 operating system but, unlike the Priv, it won’t be a premium handset – it shares its\u00a0the design with the Idol 4S – a handset produced by Alcatel, a Chinese-owned rival.<\/p>\n This is a low-cost and low-risk way of producing a new handset, and suggests the Priv will continue as BlackBerry’s top offering and this will be one of possibly a number of other devices in the stable.<\/p>\n The new handset will be based on an existing one and won’t come with BlackBerry’s famous physical keypad – so what can this phone offer that other’s can’t?<\/p>\n Greater security, according to the boffins at Blackberry, who insist\u00a0the phone has unique internal hardware, with chips protected by cryptographic keys to prevent tampering and stump\u00a0hackers<\/a>.<\/p>\n And it’ll also be more affordable than the Priv handset, so that could be a selling point.<\/p>\nWhat is the BlackBerry Dtek50?<\/h2>\n
What’s the USP?<\/h2>\n