For quite sometime now, the rumor mill is abuzz with reports that Canadian telecom giant BlackBerry is planning to develop a new smartphone that will be powered by Android. While BlackBerry has yet to respond to such rumors, a reputed tech writer has now tweeted an image showing a device similar to BlackBerry Passport handset with an Android keyboard.

IB Times reports that the picture was posted by Evan Blass, former senior editor at Engadget and currently a freelance writer, who goes by the Twitter handle @evleaks, on Friday.

In fact, Blass posted a tweet earlier saying that the BlackBerry slider, which was displayed at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress, has a version that runs on Android. He hinted that this version of BlackBerry may be available to customers in the United States via AT&T soon.

Meanwhile, one Twitter user (@tval24) challenged Blass' recent post writing, "That's not a slider, so I'll discount your earlier claim that it's headed to AT&T as not credible." Blass responded saying, "That's a Passport, of course -- I never claimed otherwise, now did I?"

While BlackBerry recently released a couple of handsets, including the Passport, with its unique square screen, and the Classic, CEO John Chen seems to be pushing the company to change into a more software-led business.

Although Chen has not ruled out developing a device running Android, and said that BlackBerry might consider making such a device if "it found a way to secure it," he emphasized that currently his company is focusing on developing security software.