Here's why BlackBerry should load the KEY2 with Microsoft software

The battle over the all-time Android phone heated upwardly this week again with the entirely-expected proclamation of the Samsung Galaxy Note nine. Garnering less involvement is the struggling BlackBerry, which recently released its keyboard-centric KEY2, which our Xbox Editor Jez Corden positively reviewed.

I, too, have been using the KEY2 for a few weeks, and like it quite a fleck. But I'm confused every bit to why Microsoft and BlackBerry aren't working more closely on this phone. Considering they should exist.

Productivity, security, and business

I was at the BlackBerry announcement in New York Urban center for the KEY2 and what struck me was how similar its message is compared to Microsoft's. The focus of the KEY2 is letting you get things done quickly and deeply while using familiar BlackBerry hardware (even if it is outsourced to device maker TCL) and a concrete keyboard.

Fiddling $.25 of the KEY2 all revolved around the thought of safekeeping. For example:

Its DTEK security checker.
Privacy Shade makes information technology hard for onlookers to read your display.
Redactor mode to block sensitive material.
Send photos to a locker, forbid cloud saves.
A locker to hibernate and secure apps, documents, and photos.

You can read the rest for yourself in CrackBerry'south in-depth review. The point is the KEY2 does wonders for Android and security in such a fashion that those who work in sensitive areas for a job can feel much safer and more confident in its data protection.

BlackBerry DTEK, redactor, and privacy shade in activeness on the KEY2.

The broader theme is the KEY2 is not a flashy telephone, it'southward not a consumer-focused Galaxy S9-killer. Heck, it's non fifty-fifty that much of a bargain compared to a OnePlus – just it's a real concern phone, congenital with security and a focus on getting work washed when mobile.

Stop me if you lot heard this before ... only that sounds like Microsoft too.

BlackBerry KEY2 + Microsoft software = obvious

When I spoke to BlackBerry during the KEY2 launch effect, the representatives had no answer equally to why they don't work more than closely with Microsoft.

Microsoft is known to have quite a few apps for Android including its Launcher, Skype, GroupMe, Office suite, Authenticator, OneDrive, Teams, Edge, Outlook, Wunderlist, To-Exercise, OneNote, Role Lens, and Remote Desktop. Y'all wouldn't be incorrect to say that those apps all have productivity in common.

And then why non ally that suite of software to the KEY2'south hardware and security features?

Many KEY2 users volition install at least some of those apps, every bit they're quite hard to escape from if you work for a large visitor or are managed past an It department.

In that location is a precedent for this, also. Microsoft and Samsung bizarrely "teamed up" to sell the Galaxy S8 with preinstalled apps (well, someone at a Microsoft Store did it for y'all). The so-called "Microsoft Edition" of that telephone made less sense than Microsoft doing the same with BlackBerry – at least those ii companies are aligned more closely in the enterprise.

Microsoft even sold the Galaxy S8 in its Microsoft Stores. Redmond also sold the Razer Phone, likewise, then why not the KEY2? The KEY2 already has a hard time finding any physical retailer to give it some shelf room.

And what about branding? Only stack Microsoft's name next to BlackBerry, and it'due south a big "duh" moment. Everyone would get why these two are working together.

Microsoft and BlackBerry deserve each other

Microsoft and BlackBerry are two companies that both royally screwed up in mobile. Each deserves an accolade for smartphone product mismanagement.

Because Microsoft has no phone game and BlackBerry is struggling to be relevant, these two companies should team upwards on a killer business-focused Android telephone (e.g. KEY2 or KEY3). Information technology doesn't even accept to be fancy; just stick a suite of Microsoft business apps on the telephone, peradventure add together some sectional Microsoft feature, sell in Microsoft Stores with some Office 365 necktie-in, and let BlackBerry (and TCL) handle the other stuff.

Would such a software partnership save BlackBerry or brand Microsoft significantly more relevant in the smartphone space? I'm not sure. Only both companies could benefit from the partnership. It would at least be more than exciting and make the KEY2 that much more than interesting for those who wearable business concern suits.

Come on, Microsoft, BlackBerry is Canadian. Just ask them. Even if they plow you down, I'm sure they will exist super polite nigh it.

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