BlackBerry will stop developing smartphones, but will give the opportunity to do it to others – 3DNews

the BlackBerry Company announced the termination of development of own hardware and plans for outsourcing the creation of devices to their partners. Although smartphones under the brand name of the BlackBerry remain on the market, the company is totally focused on the software and will not invest money in the development apparatus. The move signals that the company becomes a step closer to completely withdraw from the smartphone market, what is she talking about for several years.

“the Company plans to stop internal development of hardware and transmit this work to their partners,” — said John Chen (John Chen), Executive Director and Chairman of BlackBerry. the “This allows to reduce the investment and increase the profitability of investments.

Less than three years ago BlackBerry had signed a strategic partnership agreement with Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry), under which the companies jointly developed certain BlackBerry smartphones. While Foxconn was responsible for the production and management of material and production reserves, which significantly reduced the participation of BlackBerry in the process of creating their own devices. Now the company plans to cease all research and development activities relating to smart phones, and focus on developing secure versions of the Android operating system (the company has recently introduced its own version of Android 6.0 that is used on the smartphone DTEK50), and applications with enhanced security available through the service BlackBerry Hub.

In addition to Foxconn, BlackBerry is working with other equipment manufacturers. So, released earlier this year, the BlackBerry smartphone DTEK50 is very similar to the phone Alcatel Idol 4, developed by Chinese Corporation TCL. Thus, BlackBerry has at least two partners who can create mobile phones and who already have experience with the canadian company. It is interesting to note that the deal with BlackBerry gave the opportunity for TCL to develop and produce smartphones under three famous brand names: Alcatel, BlackBerry, and Palm. While Foxconn for some time engaged in the development and production of BlackBerry devices, and Nokia (in this case we are talking only about production and sales).

in Addition to the plans to discontinue the development of its own hardware BlackBerry announced on Wednesday and first licensing agreement. Joint venture PT Merah Putih BB will produce and sell their own smartphones with the BlackBerry logo that will be running the protected version of Android 6.0. Though not entirely clear to what extent PT Merah Putih BB develops their own devices and relies on some ODM partners, it is very likely that the device manufacturing is performed by companies like Foxconn or TCL.

BlackBerry is considering a complete withdrawal from the smartphone market for several years now, ever since John Chen became its CEO. The CEO has repeatedly said that software and technology secure communications are key for BlackBerry. At the same time, Mr. Chen cautioned that the company may stop selling their phones if they can’t do it with profit. As you can see, BlackBerry will cease development of its own spacecraft, but will offer to do this for other companies. Thus, the device under the brand name of the BlackBerry remain on the market, but the company will not spend big money on their development. While in some countries, BlackBerry will continue to sell smartphones on its own (USA, Canada), and in some (Indonesia) prefer to give such business partners.

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