Earlier this year, TCL announced that its partnership with BlackBerry will end on August 31, 2020. BlackBerry also tweeted a goodbye message following the announcement. Now, ahead of the official termination of the contract, a new company called OnwardMobility says it has made a deal with the BlackBerry.
The software company says the deal involves using BlackBerry’s name and intellectual property to create a new keyboarded Android smartphone. Further, the handset is coming to the US and Europe in 2021.
“We really see a need for a 5G BlackBerry, Android smartphone with a physical keyboard and being a flagship device,” said Peter Franklin, CEO of OnwardMobility.
The new BlackBerry is said to serve the niche that isn’t being served by any other manufacturer. The 2021 BlackBerry phone will come equipped with a QWERTY-keyboard. Further, the phone is tipped to be a “global flagship” running Android. It will be “competitively priced” and have both sub-6GHz and millimeter-wave 5G.
Source: PCmag
