Blackberry Ltd (BBRY)’s Priv Launches on Verizon Network in the U.S

BlackBerry PRIV

Blackberry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) and Verizon network have partnered to launch the Blackberry Priv, Blackberry’s first commercial Android device. Initially launched in the United States using the two larger carriers AT&T and T- Mobile this comes as good news for fans of the troubled company Blackberry who are on the Verizon network. The Blackberry Priv had already been launched in countries like U.S (through AT&T and T-Mobile), UK and Canada in early November and further on has launched in other parts of the world.

The Blackberry Priv can be purchased online on March 3 on the Verizon website or buy it in stores from March 11 for a price said to be as low as $30.00 each month on a 24-month device payment plan.

There are also additives that Verizon is including into the deal which include a superior 4G LTE network, activation of the Priv on Verizon plan XL gives you24 GB of bonus data a year, for life. Sweet right!!! But if that’s not enough for you just switching to Verizon from a discount provider makes you eligible for up to $650 towards your old contract.

The Canadian based company, Blackberry, used components similar to that of LG’s premier device, LG G4. The Priv, as it is commonly known has an 18MP rear camera, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage and to top it all up has a microSD slot. Another added advantage as with all Blackberry devices; the Priv comes with a keyboard. Way to take us back to the times when we had buttons on our phones right.

The most notable difference of the Priv compared to all other Blackberry devices is the fact that it uses Android operating system. Blackberry still maintain that it will not abandon its own operating system the Blackberry 10. It also, however, states that the Priv is a way to start its transition to the Android system.

With dwindling numbers of users who still use the Blackberry operating system, it will be hard to see the positives in keeping with it. To add salt to injury WhatsApp, the popular messenger service that has over 600 million active subscribers has just come out saying that the Blackberry operating system is part of those that they plan to ditch starting from December 2016.

They claim that looking forward they don’t see the Blackberry operating system as an active force, so their hands have been tied. Thus, it seems like the Blackberry Priv is the way to go.

We can only hope for more from this once popular and big technological giant. But as for now let’s get the Blackberry Priv.