BlackBerry announced today that they'll be ending their partnership with TCL Communications going forward, leaving the security-focused brand without a company to manufacturer any of their devices. This makes the future of BlackBerry pretty uncertain.
No more BlackBerry?
The post didn't give a reason for the end of the partnership, which seemed to be doing fairly well for BlackBerry's limited market share. We've only seen a handful of devices shipped in the last few years, including the KeyONE and Key2, but they were all pretty solid phones. The target demographic for the phones was pretty questionable, but we found them at least above average here at Talk Android.
But with the limited appeal of a security-focused phone like that, there's a very realistic chance that one of both of the partners in this situation decided that it wasn't worth continuing. Making devices without selling a ton of them can be expensive, and the software support that comes with them can be a long-term drain on resources. Couple that with TCL getting ready to launch a few higher-profile devices of their own in the coming months and it all does make sense.
But that statement doesn't specifically say that BlackBerry's going to stop making devices. In fact, this could just be a temporary changeover until someone like HMD Global picks up the rights and we get the Key3 in early 2021.
Or, obviously, this could be the end, and now BlackBerry's just going to spend what little time they have left doing software support before fading into the night. I could see this going either way.
So if you're still using a supported BlackBerry device, don't worry, you're still getting support. But if you were thinking about upgrading to a BlackBerry phone next time around (which would be odd, to say the least) then you might have to reconsider and go with something else instead.
RIP the physical smartphone keyboard.
source: BlackBerry (Twitter)Check out this deal on our favorite VPN serviceYouTube Music reviewBest cloud storage appsBest video streaming apps
