Last week a piece of news stormed the internet that BlackBerry has ended smartphone production and that support for all the existing phones has ended. But turns out it was all a rumour. BlackBerry officials confirm that BlackBerry is not dead and in fact, is preparing for another smartphone.
BlackBerry is not dead
It has almost been 3 years since the market has heard anything from BlackBerry. So it would be easy to assume that the company is done for. But it was all a rumour. Onward Mobility (parent company to BlackBerry) has recently confirmed that the company is indeed alive. They have shared with the internet that 2021 has been a tough year for them. I am sure many of us can relate to that. They have apologized to their fans for not being in contact and also shared the news of another smartphone being in the plans.
Message from OnwardMobility
The team from OnwardMobility broke the news via a post that contained the following message. They start off with the statement “Contrary to popular belief, we are not dead.”
Then here it the rest;
We’ve read all your Facebook and Linkedln comments, articles, Tweets, email messages and more, and not only do we understand your frustration, but we genuinely share it. Everyone has eagerly awaited additional information following our last announcement, but 2021 was truly a challenging year to launch a new phone, much less one with the high expectations we set and the fact that we want to get it right!
While we encountered various delays that prevented us from shipping in 2021, we will be providing more regular updates starting this month that will clarify and answer many of your questions about the ultra-secure 5G enterprise smartphone (still with a keyboard!) we’re bringing to market. All of us at OnwardMobility are incredibly grateful for the community of loyal users for this opportunity. To the media: we’ll be ready to deliver news and speak with you soon and we look forward to it.
We sincerely apologize for our silence and truly appreciate your patience. In the meantime, we wish everyone a healthy start to the New Year!
A New BlackBerry 5G smartphone
Not only did they announce the news of the company being alive, but they are reportedly also working on a new 5G smartphone.
“ultra-secure 5G enterprise smartphone (still with a keyboard!) we’re bringing to market.”
From the statement, one thing is instantly clear that BlackBerry isn’t leaving the physical keyboard route. The next phone will be 5G is also clear. Now, let’s come towards the things that aren’t clearly explained.
The phone is expected to use Android but while having some extra security features by BlackBerry. It is also rumoured to get the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 as the SOC. The display will be around 6″ but the phone will be larger thanks to the physical keyboard.
Our Thoughts
When seeing the news, “BlackBerry is not dead” one thing that instantly popped into my head was “Why”.
We genuinely don’t know that why BlackBerry still wants to push so much on the whole physical keyboard thing. I can’t still say my final verdict until the phone is launched. But sometimes it’s good to change with time, maybe if they had stopped doing this “gimmick” the legacy would have been on a good point.
Well, let’s wait until we see further news on this new 5G smartphone. What do you think about this? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
