He declined to say when the new smartphones would go on sale.
Some experts have said BlackBerry's first Android-powered smartphone, the Priv, could turn around the company's faltering hardware business. Though the PRIV launched with Verizon in March, the hold up pushed the benefits of that launch out of the quarter, Chen said.
Chen is quoted as saying that the Priv "was too high-end a product", commenting on BlackBerry's recent revelation that it only sold 600,000 Priv handsets, far below the 850,000 forecast. Instead, the model appears to be yet another albatross around BlackBerry's neck. One will feature a physical keyboard like the Priv, while the other one will be an all-touchscreen phone.
Then there's the question of the operating system.
It appears BlackBerry is all in on Android as Chen said there were no plans to release handsets using the BB10 operating system.
BlackBerry's CEO also argued that the company still has a strong base with the enterprise market. Unfortunately, the company still faces too many headwinds to be considered a turnaround play.
We can expect the Canadian company to make an announcement for the Indian market shortly. But looking ahead, BlackBerry believes that its software sales will rise 30% in fiscal 2017, offsetting sluggish hardware sales and helping it become profitable within the year.
In a conference call last week, he said that the company is working to expand distribution of the Priv this quarter to new countries and carriers. Looking at the sizeable improvement in the average price, it's safe to assume that, Priv had a huge role to play in the overall 700,000 sold units, Digital Trends reported.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said the company has passed the "danger" phase, and is now headed towards a revival phase, which is aimed at transforming the erstwhile handset leader into a software and security company. With Retract, users can retract messages and pictures they sent to recipients in error or no longer wish to make accessible.
Source: BlackBerrry has two mid-range Android phones coming this year
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