BlackBerry taps TCL to manufacture and sell its smartphones

After using TCL Alcatel designs for its DTEK50 and DTEK60 phones, BlackBerry today made its partnership with TCL officially official.

BlackBerry has entered into a long-term licensing agreement with TCL Communication, the company that’s behind Alcatel phones. Under this agreement, BlackBerry will license its security software, service suit, and brand assets to TCL, who will design, manufacture, sell, and provide customer support for BlackBerry-branded mobile products.

BlackBerry does say that it will continue to develop its software and security solutions, leaving TCL to manufacture, distribute, and sell its hardware.

The news of this partnership isn’t exactly surprising considering that BlackBerry has used TCL designs for its recent DTEK50 and DTEK60 phones. Still, it’s a big deal because it reaffirms that BlackBerry is getting out of the smartphone hardware game after being a dominant force in it for so many years.

One final detail worth noting is that BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said that his company has one QWERTY smartphone in the works. BlackBerry hasn’t confirmed any other details about the device, but a recent leak claimed to show a couple images of it in the wild.

BlackBerry

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