Earlier this year, BlackBerry bowed out of the smartphone business citing poor financial results and stiff competition from rival manufacturers. However, BlackBerry CEO John Chen has confirmed the company’s plan to release one final phone with its signature QWERTY keyboard, before retiring its smartphone division. This comes after the company promised one last phone in that of the DTEK60.
“We have one keyboard phone I promised people,” said John Chen in an interview with Bloomberg. Although BlackBerry will stop producing its own phones, it will license the brand name and its signature keyboard design to third-party manufacturers. The DTEK60 was the last device released by the company in collaboration with TCL, the phone manufacturing division of Alcatel.
John Chen did not specify any details about what BlackBerry’s latest phone would pack in terms of features and hardware specs or when it will launch. All we know for now is that it’s going to include the company’s iconic QWERTY keyboard with either a slider design like the BlackBerry Priv or the traditional design like the BlackBerry Passport.
SOURCE [Bloomberg]
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