Silent Circle, the secure communications product manufacturer that brought forth the Blackphone has now revealed that a high-end, secure, Android tablet is in the pipeline.
Jon Callas, the co-founder and CTO of Silent Circle told CNBC, “We are in fact working on a tablet. We are not ready to disclose the exact features, but we want it to be a high-end tablet.”
“We want it to have the features people who use it every day will demand from it,” he added.
Blackphone, released in January this year, is a product of partnership between Silent Circle and Spanish smartphone manufacturer, Geeksphone and is made secure with its PrivatOS secure Android operating system.
With a focus on “privacy, security and control,” the PrivatOS utilizes encryption tools for sending pictures and browsing the Web, and Callas says that the same security measures will feature on the tablet.
Unlike startups coming up with products and apps to make existing smartphones more secure, like Vysk, Blackphone intends to remove all need for an add-on. However, as CNBC points out and analysts reiterate, building a customer base will require a fair amount of brand marketing and might be hard with the expected high-end price tag. Also the lack of an existing app store doesn’t make things easier.
Regarding the matter of Blackphone having no access to Google Play, Callas believes that there is a niche market that would want to stay away from the data collecting giant and an app store of the secure phone is on its way.
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(Image Credit: Maurizio Pesce)