BlackBerry licenses brand to Chinese phone maker TCL

[midian182]

Back in September, BlackBerry announced that it would stop internal development of its smartphones, relying instead on partners to design and build future hardware. Now, the firm has reached a “long-term” deal with TCL that will see the Chinese company design, build, sell, and support all future BlackBerry handsets.

The partnership doesn’t come as a huge surprise; TCL manufactured the BlackBerry DTEK50 and DTEK60, which were modified and rebranded versions of its own Alcatel phones.   

BlackBerry is also licensing its security software and service suite to TCL Communication, which is a subsidiary of Chinese multinational giant TCL Corporation. The company is also licensed to use the BlackBerry name, logo, and brand assets.

The move allows BlackBerry to concentrate on software development, such as its enterprise and security offerings. While TCL will have the exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute BlackBerry smartphones around the world, there are some locations where the deal doesn’t apply: India, Sri Laka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.

BlackBerry announced a joint venture with Indonesian company PT Tiphone Mobile in September that allows the firm to license BlackBerry software and services for the production of handsets for the Indonesian market.

2016 hasn’t been the best year for BlackBerry. WhatsApp, Facebook, and PayPal all announced that they were dropping support for its BBOS and BlackBerry 10 Operating systems. This was shortly followed by President Obama’s announcement that he had changed his BlackBerry for an unnamed smartphone.

The company’s move to Android didn’t prove hugely successful, either. The Priv, its first Android device, was given a price cut in April due to its low sales. TCL has confirmed, however, that its future BlackBerry phones will run Android.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/67432-blackberry-signs-deal-allows-branded-phones-built-tcl.html

 

[Bigtruckseries]

A merger of equally inferior products...

 

[Lionvibez]

The DTEK60 is a very nice phone I was able to see it ahead of launch when blackberry came to the law firm that I work at.

Think I will be upgrading my Blackberry Z30 to it.

 

[psycros]

So much for Blackberry. All they had going for them were keyboards and security, and by going with a Chinese builder they just kissed the latter goodbye. I'll have to score a PRIV off Ebay after the price drops a little more.

 

[Seraphim401]

How the mighty has fallen.

 

[Lionvibez]

So much for Blackberry. All they had going for them were keyboards and security, and by going with a Chinese builder they just kissed the latter goodbye. I'll have to score a PRIV off Ebay after the price drops a little more.

lmao I find the paranoid attitude about china hilarious.

Almost everything you buy is built in china these days.

 

[petert]

If they adopt a business model in which they guarantee the updates for 2-3 years for each phone, I'll be the first to buy. Put in there a nice feature like maybe similar to the 3D Touch from iphones, etc. Or even better, make it independent of Google ecosystem. Hell yeah, I gave them a few ideas which would surely get them out of the hole or at least make them suck less, they should hire me as big time payed consultant.

 

[petert]

So much for Blackberry. All they had going for them were keyboards and security, and by going with a Chinese builder they just kissed the latter goodbye. I'll have to score a PRIV off Ebay after the price drops a little more.

sounds like a bad idea, that keyboard looks very awkward to use.

 

[PinkMachine]

BlackBerry [*]