BlackBerry, which once sold over 50 million devices a year, has announced that its Android phones will come to an end this year.
Everyone that grew up during the early years of this millennium knows BlackBerry. Often credited with being the world's first maker of the mainstream smartphone, BlackBerry has seen many a heyday, once holding over 20 percent of the global smartphone market and shipping more than 50 million devices every year. However, the iconic Canadian company missed the turn in the millennium that saw the rest of the world run helter skelter towards Android and the dawn of touchscreen smartphones inspired by the equally iconic Steve Jobs. After ceasing to operate its own brand of smartphones in 2016 and licensing its brand to TCL Electronics, BlackBerry has announced on Twitter today that it is severing its partnership from TCL. With no news of a change of hands in partnership, this may well be the end of the way for BlackBerry, once a behemoth in the world of mobile devices.
The company has been in the dead, for all intents and purposes. Its last smartphone, the BlackBerry Key2 LE, was unveiled nearly two years ago. In comparison to the fanfare and near frantic hubbub that brands such as Xiaomi, Samsung, Oppo and other leading smartphone players generate, the Key2 LE came — and went — in comparative silence, perhaps speaking a lot about the recent state of the brand. As a result, the announcement from BlackBerry does not come as a surprise. What does strike out, though, is that BlackBerry is not drawing a complete end to its future trysts with smartphones. The company's statement on Twitter says that only its partnership with TCL has ended, suggesting that it remains open to the prospect of a new manufacturing partner, or a comeback in one way or another, in the coming years.