Very little has been heard about the once market leader in handsets, Blackberry, and soon even less, as TCL are not releasing any more.
In 2016 Blackberry stopped making their own handsets and TCL took the reigns, several contemporary Android handsets followed.
However, this agreement has reached the end of its life, with TCL stating that August 2020 will be an end to the arrangement.
The company has struggled for many years due to the popularity of the on screen keyboard available from the modern smart phone, and we said farewell to the BB messenger earlier this year.
Blackberry has also previously attempted to restart the revolution, with little interest shown, and when they tried their own Blackberry 10 OS, popular apps refused to redesign code for yet another platform.
The company now focuses purely on cyber security and software, but Blackberry still hold patents for the much loved keyboard, so if things change this could be another revenue stream for them.
When admitting cease of production of Blackberry, TCL said: “We were very excited and humbled to take on this challenge.
“What made these devices great wasn’t just the hardware developed and manufactured by TCL Communication, but also the critical security and software features provided by BlackBerry Limited to ensure these were genuine BlackBerry devices.
“The future is bright for both TCL Communication and BlackBerry Limited, and we hope you’ll continue to support both as we move ahead on our respective paths.”
The Blackberry Key2 will be the final handset off the production line, so if you can’t live without a keyboard, you had better stockpile.
