BlackBerry Mobile is dead again. For the third time, but at the hands of its licensee, TCL. After a three-year partnership that began in 2016, we will not be seeing any new BlackBerry Mobile smartphones made by TCL anymore. The announcement was made via the official BlackBerry Mobiles Twitter account a short while ago.
TCL and BlackBerry Mobile entered into an agreement in December 2016 that saw the former manufacture new BlackBerry mobile phones such as the BlackBerry KEYone, BlackBerry KEY2, and BlackBerry KEY2 LE. Let’s also not forget the BlackBerry Motion.
— BlackBerry Mobile (@BBMobile) February 3, 2020
The press release said beginning August 31, 2020, TCL Communication will no longer sell BlackBerry-branded mobile devices. It goes on to say that TCL Communications has no right to design, manufacture or sell any new Blackberry mobile devices. However, the company (TCL) will continue to provide support for the existing devices up until August 31, 2022.
TCL didn’t announce a new BlackBerry phone last year (not counting the BlackBerry KEY2 RED Edition) and neither did any of the other two licensees – Optiemus and BB Merah Putih of India and Indonesia respectively. Since no new products were announced, we could tell something was up. However, only the partnership with TCL Communications is ending as there is no news regarding the other two licensees.
TCL already announced its first branded smartphone last year and is set to announce three new models at MWC 2020. It also still manufactures Alcatel-branded devices and is very much still in the TV business.
Based on this new development, it is safe to say BlackBerry is dead again. Will it be resurrected one more time? Only time will tell.
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(Source)
