The latest to threaten BlackBerry’s stand on secure devices is Blackphone. Blackphone, a device that is based on Android’s platform again, based on just looks, it does look like a fairly standard Android phone (Huawei or iNo anyone?). Despite their promise that it is the MOST secure device in the market, the makers, however, does state that it is not 100% secure.

It will come with a 4.7-inch HD (the exact resolution has yet to be announced) IPS display, a >2GHz quad-core processor, 16GB of internal storage, 2GB RAM, an 8-megapixel camera, LTE/WiFi, again, there is nothing spectacular.

Powered with Silent Circle’s suite of apps, it consists of:

• Silent Phone, an app that offers peer-to-peer encrypted VoIP calls
• Silent Text, which gives the same level of encryption for messaging
• Silent Contacts, which replaces the stock Android app to safeguard your contact list from apps that may seek to skim your contacts for nefarious purposes.

However, all of these applications mentioned are already available for iPhone and Android devices with a paid subscription, and the Blackphone only comes with two years of service included.

Nonetheless, how will this work out? It is definitely not quite as simple as just buying a Blackphone and suddenly having secure communications. Silent Circle’s applications can only offer peer-to-peer encryption when you’re calling another Silent Circle user, and you need to pay Silent Circle to be a user. To solve this problem, everyone using a Blackphone will receive three extra one-year subscriptions to Silent Circle’s services to hand out to friends, colleagues, or family members. After one year the free subscription runs out, and users will be presented with a choice: pay $10 per month to continue using the suite, buy a Blackphone, or go back to regular phone calls and text messages.

So clearly, it would require you to have an application and both parties to be subscribed to this, which is quite a major downside, considering that you can have BBM for free.

Not forgetting about open sourcing though, they will open source the vast majority of its code for the phone in order for third parties to properly audit its techniques, find holes, and ultimately help to improve the product. (and ultimately, Android too is open source)

With Blackphone now available for pre-ordering at us$629, and first devices available in June, will you be getting one?