BlackBerry's new DTEK50 smartphone targets U.S. sales

As BlackBerrypushes forward with anothernew smartphone, one technology analyst says it's becoming less attached to its Canadian roots.

• BlackBerrylaunches newDTEK50smartphone

"Blackberry is increasingly a U.S. company," DanielBader, aCanadian technology analyst who works for various websites, said Tuesday."You hear less and less about hearing it being a Waterloo-based company."

On Tuesday, BlackBerry announced the launch of the DTEK50, its second Android-powered mobile device that the company hopes will become the preferred option for businesses seeking a safe and affordable smartphone.

"When it comes to security, BlackBerry is leading all other Android smartphones," the company said on YouTube. "BlackBerry lives and breathes security and has taken extra steps to help protect you from malware and hacks."

The company says the DTEK50 target audience is "everyone" due to the increasing threat that mobile security risks now pose to the public at large.

People who are familiar with the BlackBerry brand and use its enterprise services can deploy it to employees in bulk while knowing that it is secure, explained the analyst who works for theAndroid Central website.

"It's probably one of the most secure phones," he stressed."It's really all about theBlackBerrysoftware suite and how the company plans to market it."

There's nothing unique about the design, which doesn't include a keyboard, but it does mark a change in how the business moves forward.

Southern sights

BlackBerrychief executive officerJohn Chen has so far shown no inclination to get out of the hardware business, having promised earlier this year to release two mid-range, Android-powered phones before the company's fiscal year ends on Feb. 28, 2017.

"It's not a particularly remarkable phone, what's remarkable is that it exists at all," Bader commented. "They're going to have to sell a lot of these to justify bringing it out."

Even as fortunes have faded over the past few years for the company, there's still some interest south of the border in the BlackBerry software, which is layered on top of what Android has to offer.

According to Bader, it's the promisedsecurity that keeps U.S. government departmentscoming back for more BlackBerry products.

The tech analyst adds that most of the top BlackBerry executives are nowbased south of the border.