Blackphones coming in three weeks, will ship in millions, backers say
The Blackphone security-focused smartphone will go on the market in three weeks and “a few thousand” have already been sold through pre-orders, executives from the device’s makers say.
Encrypted communications provider Silent Circle and manufacturer Geeksphone introduced the Blackphone earlier this year to give users a way around data collection by governments and private companies. The US$629 device, made by a Swiss joint venture called SGP Technologies SA, runs a custom Android-based OS and was designed from the ground up to prevent hacking. It will offer secure and private voice and video calls, text messaging and file exchanges, as well as anonymous Internet use, the companies say.
Through partnerships with service providers in Europe and in North, Central and South America, the companies have commitments to deliver millions of phones, Silent Circle President and co-founder Phil Zimmerman said on Tuesday at MIT Technology Review’s Digital Summit in San Francisco. KPN, which has already said it will sell the Blackphone in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, is committing to hundreds of thousands of phones, he said.
