MWC 2015: Silent Circle showcases Blackphone 2, the encrypted Android device

At the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Silent Circle, the company behind the encrypted and secure Blackphone showed off the second version of their device. The Blackphone 2 will launch in the second half of 2015 and the company is now targeting enterprise services as well and not just consumers who were conscious about their privacy. The Blackphone 2 will have a 5.5 full HD display. According to specs sheet put up by GSMArena, it has an updated 64-bit octa-core processor in an yet unknown chipset, a 3060mAh battery, microSD card slot, LTE and 3GB of RAM. The price of the smartphone will remain the same as the earlier one at $649, adds the report. The company also announced a new Blackphone+ 8-inch tablet built to for enterprises which will launch in the latter half of 2015, although it hasn’t specified the specs for this tablet. The Blackphone 2 will run PrivatOS, which is a highly secure and forked version of Android. Silent Circle is updating PrivatOS and will launch 1.1. PrivatOS 1.1 will have something called Spaces, which according to the company is “an OS-level virtualization and management solution that enables devices to be used for all aspects of mobile life without compromising choice, privacy or ease-of-use.” PrivatOS 1.1 is geared for enterprises and will keep “enterprise and personal apps and data completely separate and permits the IT administrator to lock & wipe the enterprise managed space when necessary.” It will also come with secure conference calling for multiple participants. Security Circle also announced that it will build the world’s first enterprise privacy platform with features like Silent Phone which allows encrypted voice and video calls over a P2P encrypted VoiP service, Silent Contacts, which will allow users to encrypt their business and personal address books, Silent Manager which allows enterprises users to manage devices, plans, etc. In an interview to TechCrunch CTO John Callas, said that while “the prosumer market has been our primary market up until now but we’re making a huge push into enterprise.” He added, “Enterprise markets in Europe, South America, Middle East is where we’re going rather than what we started off with — which was the prosumer market. They’re still very important to us and that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing with Blackphone [hardware]… but in an organization you’re going to have a wide mix of devices." Other key features of the Blackphone include the Silent Circle suite of applications which includes Silent Phone, Silent Text, and Silent Contacts. These apps, designed with keeping privacy at their core, require the user to connect to the internet using their smartphones or tablets and both parties must have the apps installed in order to keep things private between them. The phone will work like any other phone, but gives users control over privacy and security using these apps.