The self-destructing phone is in the making by the second largest US defense contractor Boeing, together with software and smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry. This partnership shows that Boeing displays interest for software development and BlackBerry gains in return a new solution in maintaining its government contracts on the background of sales drops. Under such circumstances I bet both BlackBerry and Boeing are rooting for each other and would like to see this partnership come to fruition. According to Reuters, John Chen, BlackBerry CEO confirms that the two companies have started the developement of the self-destructing phone
As I mentioned, the smartphone that Boeing and BlackBerry are developing for goverment employees will feature call-encryption and as such is directed to the agencies where data protection is of paramount importance. Although call encryption isn’t that hard to come by, the self-destructing phone bit is quite a different story. Apparently this feature will activate when the phone is tampered with as an extra layer of security in case the phone is lost or stolen and the sensitive data along with it. Perhaps exactly how a proper spy-phone should work.
A question immediately arises though, as no specifics are given yet about how exactly the self-destructing phone gimmick will work: How safe will it be for the current holder? Thus far, this is anyone’s guess. The BlackBerry and Boeing self-destructing phone apparently will also feature dual-sim capabilities and will run on Android. Perhaps it’s BlackBerry’s stern refusal in following the industry’s design trends and renowned data security that made Boeing partner up with the former, but nonetheless it would be highly interesting to see these two companies pull this off. Good news is that it seems Boeing already offers this solution to its partners so this means that device production could be right around the corner.