BlackBerry smartphones are no longer a premium fancy item. The company took to the official Twitter handle and revealed that the sales of the BlackBerry smartphones will end in August 2020. However, the company will continue to provide technical support and software updates until August 2022.
TCL, which was in charge of manufacturing the BlackBerry smartphones, will stop not only manufacturing but also selling from August 31, 2020. Interestingly, it’s the TCL, which got the license to manufacture BlackBerry devices in 2016 after the original company stopped the manufacturing process.
If you had purchased a BlackBerry device recently, you will receive updates until August 2022. You will not receive any updates after that and your phone will become obsolete. It’s been a roller coaster ride for BlackBerry since its inception in 1999. The BlackBerry device was hugely popular because of its text messaging functionality. With the rapid growth of Android smartphones, the company found it difficult to survive.
BlackBerry took to Twitter and posted a short note regarding the discontinuation of smartphones. The tweet is in the form of an image. The content states that the BlackBerry Keyone was highly anticipated by the community. The success of the device was not only due to the excellent hardware designed and manufactured by TCL but also the mission-critical security and software updates. The company also brought BlackBerry Motion, KEY2, KEY2 LE back from the lost glory.
According to the company sources, TCL won’t be selling BlackBerry-branded mobile devices with effect from August 31, 2020. TCL Communication has no further rights to design, manufacture and sell any BlackBerry mobile devices. However, TCL would continue to provide support for all the devices until August 31, 2022. The company also thanked all the partners, customers and the community for the support extended by them. Towards the end of the post, the company expressed hope that the future is bright for both TCL and BlackBerry.
— BlackBerry Mobile (@BBMobile) February 3, 2020
Gone are days, where people used to press on the BlackBerry keypads while commuting from home to office. We don’t have any information as to whether the company will provide Android Pie updates for the existing smartphones. Previously, the company posted a tweet on January first week and nothing after that.
We can safely assume that the company would sack its employees and retain few staff members only for the purpose of providing updates and technical support. We expect mass layoffs from both BlackBerry and TCL.
