John Chen says BlackBerry will release two mid-range Android smartphones this year, one of them with physical keyboard, admits Priv was too expensive
BlackBerry switches focus back on mid-range smartphone market — BlackBerry has switched its focus back to the mid-range smartphone market …
Context & Ripple Effects
BlackBerry's Android bet began as a premium experiment: after reports it was considering Android while shifting toward software, the company launched the Priv — a device reviewers liked for its keyboard and security, per the Wall Street Journal's favorable take, but which arrived alongside weak Q2 earnings and a 13-cent-per-share loss.
Chen's admission that the Priv was too expensive closes that loop: rather than chasing flagship pricing against Samsung and Apple, BlackBerry is returning to the mid-range segment where its brand historically lived, with a keyboard-equipped model among the two planned devices. The strategy is later validated by TCL's $549 KeyOne, which ships the hardware keyboard on mid-range internals.
First-order effects
- BlackBerry's own roadmap shifts immediately: two mid-range Android handsets replace the premium-only approach, with one carrying the physical keyboard that differentiated the Priv.
- The pricing lesson lands on Chen directly — the Priv's high price point is publicly acknowledged as a mistake, resetting expectations for what BlackBerry-branded hardware will cost.
Second-order effects
- Mid-range positioning forces BlackBerry to compete on volume economics rather than margin, pressuring the device business it had been de-emphasizing in favor of software and device management.
- A keyboard-bearing mid-ranger creates a template that TCL ultimately executes with the $549 KeyOne, moving BlackBerry hardware toward a licensing/partner model rather than in-house flagships.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, BlackBerry's phone business settles into niche differentiation — security plus physical keyboard at mid-range prices — while the company's center of gravity stays with software, exactly the direction flagged when Android adoption was first reported.
The trend: BlackBerry's hardware strategy is retreating from premium flagship competition toward mid-range, keyboard-differentiated Android devices built increasingly through partners like TCL.