2022 was supposed to be the year that BlackBerry would make a comeback with an all-new 5G-enabled Android phone with a physical keyboard. This immense task was put on the shoulders of OnwardMobility, who were granted the licence to use the BlackBerry name.
However, on the 10th of February 2022, Kevin Michaluk of CrackBerry stated, which was later confirmed by Android Police, that BlackBerry has cancelled its licensing agreement with OnwardMobility and will not be moving forward with the new smartphone project. This news also comes weeks after BlackBerry announced it completely sold its legacy mobile patent assets for a sum of USD600 million (~RM2.5 billion) to a consortium of companies called Catapult IP Innovations Inc.
The reason behind this decision is unknown as neither OnwardMobility nor BlackBerry responded to a request for comment by Android Police. If I had to guess it might be that BlackBerry isn’t confident with another licensing deal and opt to cash out early instead. Patent sale is quite common with failing corporations that hold a large number of patents. For example, Kodak, a popular American analogue photography company, sold its digital imaging patents to a consortium of bidders for USD525 million (~RM2.2 billion) after filing for bankruptcy.
As of right now, Michaluk believes that BlackBerry CEO John Chen decided the company is finally ready to move on from its legacy of dominating the mobile phone market and to go out quietly rather than face another failed product line. As of writing, OnwardMobilty has yet to update their website nor put out a statement to reflect the end of their partnership with BlackBerry.
According to Android Police, the all-new BlackBerry phone with 5G would have taken design cues from the Android-powered BlackBerry Priv from 2015.
OnwardMobility announced a licensing deal with BlackBerry in August 2020 after TCL ended its relationship with BlackBerry after more than 3 years. OnwardMobility’s first BlackBerry phone was slated for release in the first half of 2021. Fans eagerly waited for an announcement only to be left in the dark when no device was released by the company. Then at the beginning of 2022, we finally got some promising news from OnwardMobiliy reassuring fans that a new BlackBerry phone is still in development with more regular updates on the progress.
The company also cited logistical and supply delays caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which I believe could have been a contributing factor to John Chen’s decision to end BlackBerry’s mobile division and revoke the licence from OnwardMobility.
As of right now, it looks like OnwardMobiliy which was founded as recently as 2018, has no other products to offer. Therefore, it remains to be seen if OnwardMobilty tries to salvage the dead BlackBerry smartphone project to create a mobile device of their own.
For BlackBerry phones running Android like the Priv, KeyOne and Key2, despite the loss of software support, the phones will be usable for the most part as they still have access to the Google Play store for the time being. Moreover, BlackBerry devices manufactured by TCL like the Keyone and Key2 will continue to receive customer service support until 31st August 2022.
As for devices running on Blackberry 10 and older, BlackBerry put out an announcement that it is pulling the plug on BlackBerry services and native apps on 4th of January 2022. They also advice against using these devices as they will not function reliably for data, phone calls, SMS, and even 911 (999 in Malaysia) functionality.
If you have a BlackBerry Priv, I suggest holding on to it as memorabilia as it was the last phone manufactured in-house by BlackBerry. Let us know in the comments if you used a BlackBerry phone during the peak of its market dominance.
