Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Taking on Blackberry: The mobile that promises privacy


The new device - which will be officially launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February - is a 'carrier- and vendor-independent smartphone', according to the press release, and is powered by custom-built security-oriented Android software called PrivatOS.


( Read More: The Snowden effect? Whistleblowing sees sharp rise)


The price of the smartphone is due to be announced at February's event. The company's website states users that it would still have the features necessary to do all the things you need, but adds that the tools installed on the Blackphone give you everything you need to take ownership of your mobile presence and ensure nobody else can watch you without your knowledge.


'You can make and receive secure phone calls; exchange secure texts; exchange and store secure files; have secure video chat; browse privately; and anonymise your activity through a VPN (virtual private network),' the website says.


It's unique selling point of privacy and security looks to be in direct competition to BlackBerry's encryption, Samsung's Knox service and other more established rivals.


( Read More: NSA hacks Microsoft error messages: Report)


This comes at a time when privacy has become part of the public debate with revelations from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Snowden has released explosive documents detailing the extent of the U.S.'s surveillance operations. A report in December from German magazine Der Spiegel said U.S. security authorities have intercepted computer shipments and hacked Microsoft's error reporting system.


Meanwhile in October, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. National Security Agency had hacked into main communication links that connect accounts at Google and Yahoo worldwide.


Benedict Evans, an analyst at Enders Analysis told CNBC that despite security breeches regularly being in the news, Blackphone would find it hard to turn this into sales.


'(It's) not very interesting,' he said via email. 'There's a very small number of people who really care about these issues enough to buy such a product.'


Neil Mawston, the executive director at Strategy Analytics believes the company would only really be able to sell a few thousand models due to limited distribution. He added that he expected that the company would look to selling its security technology to another company in the longer term.


By CNBC.com's Matt Clinch. Follow him on Twitter@mattclinch81


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