BlackBerry And TCL Partnership Ends; Will Cease Production Later This Year

In the era of pseudo smartphones and before touchscreens were a thing, the BlackBerry brand reigned supreme as one of the prominent vendors in the world. However, due to the popularity of Android and iOS powered smartphones, the brand’s presence has steadily declined and was recently announced that it will finally cease production by 31 August this year.

This is not the first time that BlackBerry underwent a downfall, as it nearly met its end due to its decrease in popularity in the mid first decade of the current millenium. That is until it was picked up by TCL Communication, a Chinese company that obtained the rights for the brand and brought new life to Blackberry phones. TCL had also enhanced the brand’s overall experience by implementing the Android operating system as well as enhanced security features.

Unfortunately, BlackBerry continued to struggle despite the new enhancements. Business professionals, its main target audience, had already embraced rivalling smartphones which are already equipped with required software and features ahead of BlackBerry’s revival.

pic.twitter.com/jhcfVHjVqL

— BlackBerry Mobile (@BBMobile) February 3, 2020

On 3 February 2020 via an announcement on Twitter, BlackBerry and TCL have announced that they will be parting ways on 31 August this year. This means that the brand’s phones will no longer be manufactured or supported by the Chinese company after that, thus likely bringing an end to the once beloved BlackBerry name.

While it could spell imminent closure for the brand, BlackBerry phones could still have a chance to see a second revival. Provided that a different manufacturer decides to pick up the brand’s rights after the partnership between TCL and BlackBerry ends later this year.

(Source: BlackBerry via BBC.)

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