BlackBerry has officially left the smartphone business. The company issued a statement saying that it has ceased internal hardware development, and will only focus on software from here on out. That is not to say that there will no longer be any BlackBerry branded phones.
This turn of events should not come as a surprise for anyone following the slow decline of BlackBerry. The company recently announced the DTEK50, which turned out to be a rebadged Alcatel phone; and is the last nail in the coffin for a smartphone brand that has been out competed by Android and iOS.
From the looks of it, the BlackBerry operating system will also be following its smartphone brethren into the void. Instead, the company is looking to provide its security and enterprise solutions on other platforms. Only Android was specifically mentioned in the release, but announcement made it sound like BlackBerry will be developing for other operating systems as well.
Unsurprisingly, BlackBerry’s first partner with its new strategy comes from Indonesia. The Southeast Asian nation represents the last substantial userbase of the company, and it will be leveraging that brand recognition.
It looks like anyone who was hoping for another BB10 phone is out of luck. Although, the move away from hardware was inevitable for BlackBerry after its last generation of devices failed to gain any real traction.
[Source: BlackBerry]
