If you’ve been wondering about the future of BlackBerry phones and whether we will be seeing another device from the company, the chances look slim. BlackBerry on Monday confirmed that from 31 August 2020 onwards, TCL, its licensed partner will no longer be manufacturing or selling BlackBerry-branded mobile devices.
The Canadian mobile giant mentioned this through its tweet, which also puts a question mark about the future of BlackBerry phones for the consumers.
The last BlackBerry phone was launched in 2018, and it’s safe to say the Android-powered device didn’t garner a lot of attention from the market as well as the sellers. According to the latest IDC data on mobile phone market share, BlackBerry doesn’t even get a mention, which paints a gloomy picture for the brand.
But for those of you who did buy the BlackBerry phones, the company says TCL Communications will offer support for customer service and its warranty until 31 August 2022. This note comes at a time when Android and iOS have eaten into the market share of other mobile operating systems.
Understandably, ever since this news broke, social media has been awash with speculations as to whether we’ll be seeing another BlackBerry phone in the near future.
As you can see here, many are seeing this announcement from BlackBerry as the sign of ‘RIP’ for the brand and its phones.
With TCL, BlackBerry launched a slew of phones; KEYone, Key2, and KEY2 LE among others. But it’s interesting to see that BlackBerry hasn’t shared any future timeline for the launch of new phones and whether they will be partnering with new brands to make them.
For now, we’re hoping that BlackBerry makes another comeback and launches products that people find appealing.
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