Even BlackBerry is designing its own smartwatch

Move over Apple: Even BlackBerry is working on a smartwatch. “We’re doing internal research on different wearables,” said John Sims, president of BlackBerry enterprise solutions, in an interview with several reporters at Super Mobility Week in Las Vegas. The wearables research at BlackBerry includes smartwatches and even smart glasses. Sims oversees BlackBerry’s BBM messenger service, and added, “I would love to have…BBM on a wearable,” he said. “It’s definitely an area of research for us.” Whether BlackBerry will ever sell a wearable device is unclear, but BlackBerry CEO John Chen has committed to continue selling smartphones and tablets as long future products make money. “There are still a lot of loyal BlackBerry users,” Sims said, including many who still love a physical qwerty keyboard. BlackBerry won’t disclose the size of its installed base of users, but it accounted for less than 1% of all smartphone sales in the second quarter, according to IDG and other analyst firms. A big hardware focus going forward will be on emerging markets outside of North America and Europe; BlackBerry announced its Z3 smartphone primarily for that market in February. BlackBerry is expected to launch a 4.5-in. display Passport smartphone later this month that features a keypad that doubles as a touchpad. Images of the device have surfaced, including on GSMArena.com.