Blackberry has just bought into IT firm NantHealth who specializes in healthcare. The stake is a minority one, but it is obviously for a reason and that could be that the Canadian RIM company plan on teaming up and creating a smartphone designed at tackling the healthcare sector.
The new phones are said to be focusing on security, viewing 3D images and CT scans from the mobile display. With that in mind, it is safe to assume the screens will be big enough to view important images on them. It could push them to the size of a phablet or at least around the 5.i-inch display we see from current flagships like the galaxy S5. Being such a niche phone and not a device that will suit everybody’s needs, we do not think it will be part of Blackberry’s top-end range. It is more likely to focus on a mid-range or low-end market.
This news comes not long after President Obama was rumored to be wanting the White House to take different smartphones that are not named Blackberry now. Obama had a long history and liking to the RIM-based company but because of their recent struggles to stay afloat he wanted to strike a deal with Samsung or HTC to carry their flagships instead.
If Blackberry cannot get everyday consumer to buy into what they are making like they do with competitors like the iPhone and HTC One M8, then CEO Chen looks to be hell-bent on supplying government and corporate sectors that will buy off them in bulk. Right now there is so much competition coming from the other companies with fingerprint sensors and firmware upgrades that create a start of the art OS that it is a good idea for them to source other options to prevent them from folding. They clearly don’t look like they have what it takes to compete with flagships of today. As we’ve seen with Microsoft and the Windows Phone, it is not impossible to turn things around.
This new range of health sector smartphones will be available late 2014.
My prediction is that it will not have a QWERTY keyboard because the screen real estate will need to be taken up with as much glass as possible to get the best picture viewing experience. Something more along the lines of the BB Z10 with fewer specs under the hood is my guess.