BlackBerry's 5G Phone Is Officially Dead (cnet.com) 19
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: The delayed 5G BlackBerry phone is dead, OnwardMobility has confirmed on its website. "It is with great sadness that we announce that OnwardMobility will be shutting down, and we will no longer be proceeding with the development of an ultra-secure smartphone with a physical keyboard," OnwardMobility said in a message posted Friday, as spotted earlier by CrackBerry. "Please know that this was not a decision that we made lightly or in haste. We share your disappointment in this news and assure you this is not the outcome we worked and hoped for." Android Police and CrackBerry originally reported the phone had been cancelled on Feb. 11, saying OnwardMobility, a Texas-based startup seeking to revitalize the iconic brand through an Android-based, next-gen Wi-Fi device, lost the license from BlackBerry Ltd. to use the BlackBerry brand name. OnwardMobility did not expand on why it is shutting down and cancelling production of the phone. The news comes after BlackBerry ended service for its legacy devices in early January. "Before OnwardMobility picked up the license, Chinese manufacturer TCL was the most recent maker of BlackBerry-branded phones," adds CNET.
Most recently, the company sold its prized patent portfolio to "Catapult IP Innovations Inc." for $600 million.
Most recently, the company sold its prized patent portfolio to "Catapult IP Innovations Inc." for $600 million.
Now? (Score:2)
Re: Now? (Score:2)
Re:Now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Didn't Blackberry die a few years ago, like mid 2010's or so?
Depends on how you count.
The last BlackberryOS device to be released was the Leap, a 5" touchscreen phone released in April 2015.
The Priv was their first-and-last Android phone, released in November 2015. After that, TCL got the green light to sell phones under the Blackberry brand, presumably with some design tenet requirements.
The KeyOne was the first such TCL-manufactured Blackberry, released in April 2017. It shipped with Android like the Priv, but also a number of Blackberry-specific software features.It won no awards for performance or camera quality, but it attempted to satiate the desires of the niche who still wanted a Blackberry keyboard on a modern phone.
The Key2 and Key2 LE were released in 2018, also TCL builds.
After that, TCL's license for the brand was about to expire; they sold it to OnwardMobility instead.
OM promised to ship their 5G Blackberry in Q1 2021, but it was clear that the writing was on the wall for quite some time. They made little more than "pre-announcement announcements", where they pretty much said "a 5G Blackberry is what we are building, stay tuned", but they never announced anything more than that. Rumors would circulate every few weeks regarding which SoC and camera it would have, but OM never made any formal announcements of what the new phone would be. Even as Q1'21 came and went, no updates or "we're still working on it" or "we have the phone in pre-production but supply chain drama is causing issues"...just, nothing.
The bigger surprise, to me at least, is not that the phone isn't coming (I figured that out last fall when they didn't so much as acknowledge the lack of a formal announcement six months after the promised ship date), it's that Onward Mobility is shutting down entirely. Sure, they picked one hell of a time to make their first foray into the market, but the fact that the company as a whole is closing up shop comes across as the 5G Blackberry being collateral damage more than anything else.
One would think that TCL wouldn't have sold the license if there was money to be made (they did themselves no favors by being absent from carrier lineups; OM may have had a plan to address this), but an archive.org perusal of their website indicates that they pretty much bet the farm on this one device. There were no other phones listed or services recommended, just hype for this one device. If their entire business plan was "make a 5G Blackberry", then it's possible that it really was the supply chain / TSMC manufacturing time that did them in, with the problem basically being that they ran out of venture capital waiting.
Re: (Score:1)
Now they have nothing but website to post sad things.
"Well, o'course it was nailed there! If I hadn't nailed Blackberry down, it would have nuzzled up to those bars, bent 'em apart with its beak, and VOOM! Feeweeweewee!"
"VOOM"?!? Mate, this company wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised!
it is a pity (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
The more mechanical aspects there are to a phone, the more that is going to inevitably break. I worked for a few years in an office where Blackberrys were common, and the chief tech guy literally had the guts of a bunch of old busted BBs to keep the whole fleet of them working. My observation was that I would never want to own such a device. And it turns out the overwhelming majority of smart phone buyers didn't either.
It's time for the whole thing to die.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I've used a blackberry since the 7290. I still use a Blackberry Classic, which I bought when it was released.
In that time, I have never seen a broken keyboard. Not on any phone I've owned, nor do I ever recall a single person complaining about a broken keyboard. (I have a large sample. I was an active member of the crackberry forums for years.) I think the only mechanical trouble I've seen was the trackball on my 8820, which needed cleaned a couple times.
A quick search doesn't turn up much either. I t
Re: (Score:2)
There's nothing worse than typing on a tiny touchscreen other than trying to type on one of those stupid phone-sized physical keyboards.
Sure, touchscreens are awful. But they've got nothing on those tiny little keys. At least an onscreen keyboard excludes nearby keypresses, which a physical keyboard never does.
I prefer a physical keyboard on a computer. But on a phone? Never. They were a nasty hack that was made obsolete over a decade ago.
Re: (Score:3)
You've never used a Blackberry keyboard, I take it? It's in a league of it's own. Touch typing is not only possible, it's something you'll pick up within a day or two.
Re: it is a pity (Score:3)
You're right. 100%. IN THEORY.
Just like it's impossible to balance a cycle on 2 wheels.
And even if that happens once in a while its definitely impossible to balance on 2 wheels for hours and KMs. For a few billion people day in and day out ? Not even science fiction would show something hare brained like that.
And YouTube has these clips of monkeys cycling around so expertly ! While being chased by dogs. Deep fakes I say
For the record I now like typing on touch screens and even use it on windows occasionally
Re: (Score:3)
BB10 was the best (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's for sure. I'm going to have a hard time adapting once AT&T finally kills the 3G network and I'm forced to give up my Classic. Using an Apple or Android phone is like stepping back in time.
Why neither Apple nor Android took a cue from BB10 I'll never know.
Re: BB10 was the best (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, a damn shame. Had smart implementations of gestures before gestures was a thing on iphones. On the non-physical keyboard Blackberries, the swipe up word choice on typing is way better than any of the slower, crappier versions on iphones/androids where you have to go to the top to pick a word. But if I had a physical keyboard I'd be happier, since it is way less prone to errors as a touchscreen typing situation.
Okay (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Wow. Fourteen posts from eleven users. (Score:2)
Twelve. :)
But what killed BB wasnt Android. Even though the iPhone did make it more fashionable to ditch physical keyboards and it was also the 1st one that was usable. Before that only stylus stuff had been tried.
BB died because it's time was over. Just like it was for every single thing historically. Just like it will be soon for android or ios. Just like windows or linux on the desktop has become much less relevant than 10 years back.
I find myself doing even shitty stuff like photoshopping some pic bette