Blackberry licence holder, Onward Mobility, in January this year had said that it was planning to launch a 5G smartphone soon. In a post on its website titled ‘Contrary to popular belief, we’re not dead’, the company had said, “While we encountered various delays that prevented us from shipping in 2021, we will be providing more regular updates starting this month that will clarify and answer many of your questions about the ultra-secure 5G enterprise smartphone, we’re bringing to the market.” Now, roughly six weeks later, the company has announced that it is shutting down its shop.
“It is with great sadness that we announce that OnwardMobility will be shutting down, and we will no longer be proceeding with the development of an ultra-secure smartphone with a physical keyboard,” Onward Mobility wrote in a post.
“Please know that this was not a decision that we made lightly or in haste. We share your disappointment in this news and assure you this is not the outcome we worked and hoped for,” the company added.
What this means is that the much-awaited 5G-enabled BlackBerry smartphone with a keypad will not see the light of day now. Interestingly, CrackBerry earlier this month had said that the upcoming BlackBerry phone had been cancelled. However, there was no confirmation regarding the same at the time. Now, roughly two weeks later, Onward Mobility has formally announced that it is going out of businesses.
Notably, TCL earlier held the licence to manufacture phones with BlackBerry brand name. The company sought to revitatlise the BlackBerry brand with the BlackBerry KEYone smartphone that was launched in 2017. Although the phone had the iconic keypad that BlackBerry phones are known for, it featured support for Android OS. Then in 2020, the company announced that it would stop making smartphones under the brand name BlackBerry. Shortly after that, the licence was picked by OnwardMobility, which planned to launch BlackBerry branded 5G smartphones in the market. Now, it seems OnwardMobility too has lost the licence, indicating the death of BlackBerry smartphones once again.
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