BlackBerry's rumored Android smartphone pic lieaks online

PanARMENIAN.Net - There's a chance that the image on the left could be BlackBerry's rumored Android smartphone, Digital Spy reports.

Well-known leaker Evan Blass shared a press render model which he claims is the company's first Android-powered smartphone, codenamed Venice.

The phone - which is apparently a slider - appears to feature Android Lollipop with the usual stock apps from Google as well as BBC, Evernote, Candy Cam, Bing and the Canada Post. There are also shortcut icons on the home screen to call and text contacts. If the device does feature a physical keyboard as previously rumoured, this image could only support the idea that the keyboard appears when the user slides the screen up.

BlackBerry briefly showed off a smartphone with the slider keyboard at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year, but is yet to reveal any further details about it.

The firm has already dabbled in cross-platform products with the launch of its BES12 enterprise mobility management software, which is compatible with iOS, Android, Windows and BlackBerry devices.

BlackBerry was once a major player in the customer smartphone world, but now has a global market share of less than 1%.

CEO John Chen recently refused to rule out the possibility of making a handset that runs the Google operating system, citing security as the deciding factor.