It’s alive! BlackBerry 10 users lobbed fresh 'Hotfix' update

BlackBerry users worldwide received an OTA (over the air) “HotFix” update yesterday, regardless of where they bought the device. And that's significant.

Version 10.2.3.2876, which for some users can be over 700MB, is essentially the same code as version 10.2.3.2836 that was pushed to a small number of devices in December – those bought direct from BlackBerry.

The BB10 platform may be languishing in a persistent vegetative state, with the company promising no new BB10 phones in 2016, and no new major features on the roadmap. But it’s still registering a pulse.

BlackBerry's chatty change log mentions only a “Calendar update, removal of the BBM Meetings app and patches to the Android Player”. That’s far from a comprehensive list. Some users report that Wi-Fi calling has been added, though their network needs to support the feature. It was a notable omission from last June’s drop.

However some users also report that Android apps can’t be deleted.

With shipments falling below 1 million a quarter, BlackBerry decided to focus on Android clients, and the first example, the “Priv by Blackberry”, launched to good reviews; here's ours from last November.

As it announced the Priv, BlackBerry committed to two security updates to the BB10 platform in the first half of 2016 for enterprise customers. Yet these are for older devices. CEO John Chen confirmed that no new BB10 phones would be released in 2016. Barring a miracle, which involves the unlikely scenario of third parties succeeding in licensing the platform, that will be true for 2017 and 2018, too.

We ran through some of the reason BB10 failed to catch on here. The first 31,415 reasons being ... it was late to market, long after Android had become established. ®