Though the Blackphone offers security above and beyond what most other smartphones deliver, the fortified Android device needs apps and updates to drive adoption, just like every other handset.
Roughly half a year after its launch, the Blackphone is getting its own app store that will be populated with apps that place a premium on privacy.
The Blackphone's app store will feature a curated collection of software that focuses on privacy. It wasn't made clear the breadth of "privacy focus" apps that will fill the app store, but Blackphone CEO Toby Weir-Jones says his company wants to make sure that each piece of software in the store fulfills everything developers claim their apps can do.
"We need to make sure there is a measure of confidence that if you go off and get an app that claims it does A, B and C that it not only does that but only does that," says Blackphone CEO Toby Weir-Jones.
The launch of the Blackphone app store, slated for early 2015, will be accompanied by an update to the company's Android-based PrivatOS and the addition of Secure Spaces.
The Spaces modules will partition the Blackphone's storage, keeping text messages and emails in one silo, for example, and games and apps in others. The divisions between the smartphone's apps and data can be customized by the user to be as generic or specific as desired.
"The addition of Spaces and the Blackphone app store is the most significant update to PrivatOS since its inception and is a real 'game changer' for the brand, further highlighting our commitment to placing privacy back into the hands of the user," says Weir-Jones.
The Spaces was developed in a partnership with Graphite Software, a company that Weir-Jones says shares his organization's core values.
"Blackphone is the only device that places privacy above everything else," says Alec Main, CEO of Graphite Software. "The combination of Graphite's Secure Spaces as part of Blackphone's PrivatOS gives consumers the ability of a rich app experience and converged corporate device, while staying in control of their personal information."
The Blackphone was launched in June, retailing at a price of $629. While high-level security is a hallmark of the Blackphone, the device is also fitted with some formidable hardware.
The Blackphone features a 2 GHz, quad-core system on chip processor, 1 GB RAM and 16 GB of storage. It has a 4.7-inch display, an 8-MP rear camera and a 1.3-MP front-facing chat cam.
The Blackphone is manufactured by SGP Technologies, which is a joint venture between secure communications provider Silent Circle and Spanish mobile device manufacturer, Geeksphone. It is headquartered in Switzerland.
