By now, you should be familiar with Silent Circle. This familiarity will be due to the unique approach the company has taken towards smartphone manufacturing and their operating system, PrivatOS. Silent Circle was half of the original team behind last year’s surprise hit, the Blackphone. The other half of the enterprise came from Geeksphone and the two companies together brought to market a device (and an OS) built on the notion of privacy. At the time, this might have seen like a strange angle to take with a new device. Especially as the Blackphone was not exactly high-end. Instead, this was a mid-range debut device. However, with privacy and security at the forefront and pushed as the main USP, it seems Silent Circle and Geeksphone were on to something.
In fact, a year on from the Blackphone and there has been a significant change in the public’s perception of privacy and security. This is largely in part to the news of the various security leaks and breaches which have dominated the headlines over the past twelve months. However, this has resulted in what essentially was a niche product becoming much more of a mainstream business. As such, Silent Circle now seems to be well on their way to establishing an almost new and unique market. In a recent interview with Mobile World Live (source link below), Silent Circle CMO, Rob Smith, confirmed as much. Stating that even they (Silent Circle) were surprised as to how quickly the market has taken off.
In fact, the speed at which the market has been growing, has resulted in massive changes in the momentum of Silent Circle. For instance, back in February, the company bought out Geeksphone’s share of the conjoined SGP Technologies business. This effectively gave Silent Circle complete control over all of the Blackphone portfolio. Not to mention, the actual device is now becoming a much smaller part in the much bigger Silent Circle ecosystem. The company has already announced and unveiled their follow-up device, the Blackphone 2. Not to mention, they are reported to also be working on a tablet, dubbed the BlackPhone+. There has also been the news that Silent Circle introduced many new security features like ‘Silent Phone’ and ‘Silent Text’, as part of their ‘Silent Suite’ offering more secure connections. In fact, Silent Circle is also reported to be working on their own, more secure app store, where more privacy suitable apps will be able to be downloaded from. As such, all of these aspects have come together and resulted in a product which is different to what is currently offered by everyone else. One which offers a “different type of mobile protection architecture“. In fact, the ecosystem will be one which offers (what Smith describes as) a “third vector“. Most notably in respect of their upcoming app store, where apps will not be rated on popularity, but on security. As such, it seems the uniqueness of Silent Circle’s approach will be one which is going to be far more widely recognized going forward. Thanks to the current climate which has effectively “accelerated the trajectory of the brand“, as Smith puts it.