Purported BlackBerry Passport with Android Lollipop onboard appears

While the current BB10 mobile OS can run some Android apps, BlackBerry is recently in the crosshairs of rumor mongers with the suggestion that it is prepping a phone with Android as the stock operating system. The device is allegedly codenamed Venice internally, and, again eventually, is said to be a slider of sorts.

For the most parts, emulating Android apps hasn't been a seamless experience on BB10, so having a full-fledged Android device might return the spotlight on BlackBerry again. As if to prove that the company is indeed toying around with an Android phone, a Twitter handle of a BlackBerry developer has posted the picture you see here, which seems to show a BlackBerry Passport running an Android build. The phone's model is denoted as BlackBerry Passport SQW-ANDS, with the last letters apparently indicating an Android version of the handset. 

The so-called Venice handset is said to come with options to be either an Android, or a BB10 device, according to the user's preferences. Where there's smoke, there is fire, too, so let's see where is BlackBerry willing to take us. Evidently, this Android-laden Passport is running the company's bread-and-butter Messenger software natively, which would eventually be the differentiating factor of the rumored BlackBerry Android handsets.

source: Nicola d'Amico (Twitter) via Mobiltelefon.ru