It is news that Blackberry Priv owners likely knew was coming down the pike: There will be no Android Oreo update for the last Blackberry-build device.
The news came via the company’s general manager of Mobility, Alex Thurber. He was recently on the UTB Blogcast and confirmed that the phone will not be updated to Oreo. It is disappointing of course but not surprising. Blackberry’s new parent company, TCL, has been focusing on restoring the brand’s name and their own first built device, the KEYone. The KEYone has been confirmed to receive an update to Oreo.
The Blackberry Priv was a unique device with its slide out QWERTY keyboard design in an era of touchscreen only devices. It receive a fair amount of press for the design as well as the fact it was the swan song for Blackberry as company. Still, for mobile tech writers and reviewers, it was a bit mediocre in many areas and many felt (me included) it under delivered.
The Priv originally shipped with Android Lollipop and was eventually upgraded to Marshmallow but as for major releases, that’s the end of the line. It is unclear when minor updates like security patches will stop for the Priv but given its circumstances and the fact it is now 2 years old, it is unlikely to receive many more if any.
