BlackBerry Officially Retires: OnwardMobility Announces the Brand's Departure 'Immediately'

Urian B., Tech Times 21 February 2022, 01:02 am

Although there were some buyers looking towards the revival of BlackBerry, these plans were quickly put to rest after OnwardMobility officially announced that the brand will be shut down for good. To add, the company's inability to compete with Android and iPhones has slowly caused its decline over the years.

BlackBerry was Once One of the Most Powerful Smartphones Out There

According to the story by ScreenRant, almost two decades ago, BlackBerry has been dominating certain brands like Nokia and Samsung but today, over the course of time, the brand just hasn't been able to keep up.

After the 2016 announcement where BlackBerry shared its decision to exit the smartphone market, a licensing deal was made with TCL which also ended in 2020. Some time later that year, OnwardMobility, the Texas-based tech startup, announced its partnership with BlackBerry and FIH Mobile Limited in order to bring back the physical QWERTY keypad with 5G.

OnwardMobility Announced the Shutting Down of BlackBerry Immediately

OnwardMobility announced on its official website that they will be shutting down BlackBerry immediately. This means that the once upcoming, underdevelopment, much-anticipated BlackBerry phones will now be scrapped.

No explanation was given as to the main reason why the company decided to shut down BlackBerry. To add, the deal actually rekindled old BlackBerry fans' optimism when it came to a revival but with the new news, previous fans will no longer be able to see any new BlackBerry devices in the future.

OnwardMobility Wanted to Release a 5G BlackBerry with Its Physical Keyboard

After the OnwardMobility and BlackBerry deal back in 2020, OnwardMobility promised an upcoming 5G smartphone with its signature physical keyboard to come in 2021 under the brand BlackBerry.

The year, however, passed by and no such device was developed. Amidst speculation, the company actually reaffirmed its plans in January to release a 5G BlackBerry device this year but despite the reaffirmation, the device is no longer coming.

The Shutting Down of BlackBerry is 'Not a Total Surprise'

As of the moment, it remains unclear as to what has happened within the course of the last month that led to the company's decision to shut down its services despite a lot of positivity being spread just a few weeks ago.

With this being said, however, the article by ScreenRant notes that it is "not a total surprise" since reports were suggesting that the BlackBerry project by OnwardMobility had actually hit a "dead end."

What Does the Future of BlackBerry Look Like?

BlackBerry also announced that it would be selling its mobile patents to Catapult IP innovations, a Delaware based company, which fueled rumors that weren't that good when it came to OnwardMobility, which was planning to revive the BlackBerry brand.

The article by ScreenRant, however, notes that it could still be interesting to see if another company would decide to revive Blackberry or if the brand will become extinct forever.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Urian B.