Is This BlackBerry’s Android Smartphone?

The first images purporting to be BlackBerry’s rumoured Android-powered smartphone have been revealed.

Photos of the BlackBerry Venice were published on Twitter earlier today by notorious tipster Evan Blass, better known as Evleaks, showing off a square design not too dissimilar from the company’s Passport device.

Although the photos don’t display a full image of the device, they do show BlackBerry’s trademark physical keyboard alongside the familiar Android back, home and apps icons along with what appears to be an onscreen keyboard.

Spotted?

Blass also revealed in a separate tweet that the new device will initially be available on US AT&T network, but didn’t reveal if this would be permanent, or any news regarding release date or costs.

Reports about an Android-powered BlackBerry smartphone first emerged last month, as part of the company’s campaign to widen the appeal of its devices.

The Canadian manufacturer had already made tentative moves over towards Google’s platform with the launch of BES12, a device management system which gives companies the ability to manage not just BlackBerry phones but also Android, iOS and Windows devices on their internal networks, earlier this year.

Such a move would also give the company more access to app developers, with developers eschewing BlackBerry’s platforms for Android and iOS. BlackBerry 10 does have access to Android apps on the Amazon Appstore, but the number of native apps falls short compared to competing platforms.

Earlier this year, BlackBerry seized on recent high-profile declarations of support for net neutrality to claim that it was being unfairly discriminated against by many app developers.

Several recent reports have indicated that BlackBerry is set to release a range of new mobile devices soon, one of which could be the first to feature the rumoured Android tie-up.

Three new devices, including the BlackBerry Oslo and a further tie-up with luxury sports car manufacturer Porsche, were supposedly leaked back in April.

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