Earlier this year, TCL, the company that produced the latest smartphone models in the BlackBerry range, announced that the partnership with the Canadian brand will not continue. Thus, we assumed that BlackBerry will continue as a software company, which develops secure business solutions in the field of communication and data security. But it seems that Canadians’ plans for smartphones are not over yet. The company announced that in 2021 we can expect a new BlackBerry smartphone, with hardware developed by a subsidiary Foxconn.
BlackBerry phones will now be manufactured in Foxconn factories
We have only just passed the middle of 2020, so it will probably be a while before we find out the first news about the new BlackBerry phone. The only detail we have about it is that it will be one with 5G connectivity. But in 2021, this will be nothing special, as all phones, from the cheapest to the most expensive, are expected with 5G connectivity.
The announcement comes from the website of OnwardMobility, a mobile security company in the United States, which joins forces with BlackBerry to develop new phones. However, it seems that OnwardMobility will only offer the security part, while BlackBerry will develop the software. The hardware development part of BlackBerry phones will fall into the hands of FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Taiwanese company Foxconn.
Apart from these details, there is no information about the hardware configuration, the software that will run on the phones or other such details. If we were to bet, the new BlackBerry models will probably be equipped with a physical keyboard, advanced security applications, integration with business solutions and probably not top specifications. The BlackBerry models produced by TCL for the last few years under the BlackBerry brand cost as much as the flagship models of the moment, but only offered average specifications. We expect this tradition to continue.
BlackBerry models have always been niche devices, so built in fewer copies than many of the popular models on the market, and the complexity of the construction is accentuated by the presence of physical keyboards. These issues could lead to increased production costs.
Juana loves to cover the tech and gaming industry, she always stays on the first row of CES conference and reports live from there.
