BlackBerry Stock Spiking After CEO Reveals 'Today Is A Great Day' With The PRIV

• Shares of BlackBerry Ltd BBRY were trading up more than 6 percent on Friday.
• The surge seems to have been triggered by a blog post made by CEO John Chen.
• The CEO published an article titled "A Really Great Day: PRIV Now Available in US and Canada."

CEO John Chen published a blog post revealing that the company was making its new PRIV secure smartphone available, via some key partners, in the US and Canada.

In the US, PRIV will be offered by AT&T Inc. T. In Canada, users will be able purchase the phone from Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) RCI, Bell, TELUS Corporation (USA) TU, WIND, and Sasktel.

The phone will also soon be available in the UK, offered by both Carphone Warehouse and Selfridges.

Why The Hype?

What's interesting about the PRIV is that it is the first-ever BlackBerry smartphone powered by Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG's Android.

"Based on early feedback, we think customers will be intrigued by PRIV's powerful productivity features, including the slide-out physical keyboard, 5.4-inch dual-curved screen and full-day battery life; wowed by the elegant, slim design; and reassured by advanced privacy features such as DTEK," Chen said.

"It goes without saying that the Android-powered PRIV also brings incredible new features to the platform and gives you full access to over one million applications, including Instagram, Spotify, Uber and BBM. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor will also let you run those apps at blazing speeds," he added.

The Reviews

In spite of what the hype might suggest, reviews for the PRIV are mixed. While Gizmodo classified it as "Not Even For My Worst Enemy," the Wall Street Journal assured "BlackBerry May Win You Back With Android."

Venture Beat's Emil Protalinski said, "I've spent a week with the latest and greatest from BlackBerry, and I can confidently say the company has pulled this off... Android with a hardware keyboard is wonderful."

Adam Swimmer at Toronto Sun explained that, "All in all, the Priv is a solid device and if you're a fan of physical keyboards and your hands aren't too big, it might be right for you."

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.