BlackBerry To Launch Bacteria Free Smartphone

Blackberry is planning to design a bacteria-free phone to cater to the healthcare industry, says CEO John Chen. Currently, an average phone contains nearly 25,000 per square inch, allowing transfer of bacteria between the phone and the person's finger.

Blackberry once dominated the smartphone industry, however, now it only accounts for less than 1 per cent of the total smartphone market share. The idea was revealed by Chen recently at a hospital north of Toronto.

"Health care workers have to be worried about one less thing to wipe down with a bacteria-free handset,” said Chen. He further added that the company has not manufactured the handset yet.

Reportedly, Blackberry has partnered with ThoughtWire and Cisco Systems Inc. To develop the innovative smartphone for the healthcare industry. The hospital workers will get to use the new portable messaging service, in addition to the alert system. The product will be of greater use to an hospital employee, rather than a normal individual.

Based on a previous study findings, it is believed that between 20 and 30 per cent of the bacterial transfer takes place between the screen of the cell phone and the finger of the user. Another study suggests that the staff at the hospital should regularly wipe their phone screens with alcohol to desanitize it. However, there are many workers who do not practice this habit.

Another study by the University of Surrey claimed that there are many bacteria on the smartphone and most of them are harmless. However, occasionally disease-causing bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus are found harbouring the smartphone.

Chen believes that the bacteria free smartphone will cut down at least one of the items that the hospital staff has to wipe. In addition, it could also possibly help bring down the number of deaths in the hospitals every year due to the hospital-acquired infections.

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