As expected, BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) has released a mid-priced Android smartphone, the DTEK50. Although the DTEK50 has a respectable feature set and a bargain price of $299.00, it will likely not reverse BlackBerry’s hardware fortunes. The phone’s battery life underscores problems with execution of BlackBerry’s Android device strategy.
Source: BlackBerry
Death by Half Measures
Even after it became apparent that the Priv had failed in the market place, Idefended the Android smartphone strategy, and argued that CEO Chen should be given the chance to see the strategy through. I felt that addressing the security and privacy vulnerabilities of Android could create a differentiated Android smartphone that would offer users the benefits of the Android app ecosystem.
But to make the strategy work, Chen would have to abandon BlackBerry’s in-house smartphone design and engineering efforts that had produced the misguided Priv. Huawei, HTC, or LG could produce customized hardware along the lines of Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Nexus.
However, following BlackBerry’s June conference call, I concluded that Chenwasn’t prepared to do what was necessary, which was to eliminate the internal hardware engineering efforts. Instead, Chen seemed to cling to the hardware engineering organization, while announcing further planned cost cutting to make it “lean and mean.”
[SOURCE:-SEEKING ALPHA]
