The name Blackberry has been synonymous with mobile office workers for many years. In recent years however the manufacture of Blackberry phones has been under license to TCL who today have announced they will stop making Blackberry phones in August.
Announced on social media via the official Blackberry channels, TCL and Blackberry will continue to support Blackberry branded phones sold under the TCL umbrella until August 31st 2022.
What this means for the Blackberry brand itself isn’t clear, but the announcement talks about moving ahead on their respective paths – so we may see more Blackberry handsets, just not from TCL.
TCL on the other hand is moving on with their own branded phones, including the TCL Plex, announced at IFA last year, and the new TCL 10-series announced at CES. TCL will also continue to manufacture the highly successful Alcatel branded handsets which offer a lot at the low and mid-range end of the market.
It’s the end of an era, at least for now. Blackberry may announce a new hardware strategy in the coming months, but for now we’ll have to wait and see.
