Chinese electronics company TCL has announced that it is no longer building BlackBerry phones and as well will stop the sales of existing ones come August 31, 2020. This is due to its contract which expired on February 3, 2020.
According to a Twitter post, BlackBerry assures BB users than TCL will continue to support current portfolio of their mobile device including customer service and warranty service August 31, 2022 or for as long as local selling dictates
BlackBerry was one of the top smartphone makers in the world and highly regraded for its secure communications. At its height in 2013, it had about 85 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide, until it lost dominance to Android and iOS platforms.
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Traditionally, BlackBerry used a proprietary OS developed it developed known as BlackBerry OS. However, it later introduced BlackBerry 10 (BB10), a major revamp of its platform based on the QNX OS so as to curb the growing threats from Android and iOS. The BB10 OS was new, and was in line with the user experience of modern smartphone operating systems.
BlackBerry produced the BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry Z30, BlackBerry Z5, BlackBerry Q10, BlackBerry Classic, BlackBerry Passport, and the BlackBerry Leap, all powered by the BlackBerry 10 OS.
However, in 2015, things didn't get better for them and the company re-focused its business strategy and began to release Android-based smartphones. They managed to release two Android-based smartphones; Blackberry Priv slider and BlackBerry DTEK50 began licensing it to TCL.