Blackberry started as a pioneer in the smartphone business, but Apple, Samsung and Co. quickly overtook the Canadian manufacturer. At last it looked like there would be no more new devices. Now another model has been announced.
Austin (dpa) - You simply cannot be killed: Actually, the end of the Blackberry smartphones with their distinctive keyboard was already sealed - but there should be a new model in the coming year.
The Texan company OnwardMobility wants to develop the devices, a subsidiary of the Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn is to build them. OnwardMobility announced that the new model, which is also equipped for super-fast 5G data transmission, should hit the market in the US and Europe in the first half of 2021.
Blackberry was once a pioneer in the smartphone market, but with the advance of touchscreens it lost its connection to Apple's iPhone and phones with the Google Android operating system. Smartphones under the brand were still around until the end - but they were no longer built by Blackberry itself, but by the manufacturer TCL, who had acquired a license for the brand name. In February TCL announced that it would stop production. The telephones only had a tiny share of the market - some of them were still used in companies and authorities.
Blackberry had already crushed its own operating system years ago - the current smartphones under the brand run with Google's Android software. The OnwardMobility device will also be an Android smartphone. Blackberry itself focuses on software for businesses as well as for cars.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 200819-99-229745 / 3
Announcement of OnwardMobility