TCL Communication has told the world it is done making BlackBerry phones. The company said Monday that its partnership with BlackBerry has ended and that it will stop selling BlackBerry-branded devices in August.
In a statement posted to Twitter, TCL said it no longer holds the rights to “design, manufacture or sell” new BlackBerry devices. Customer and warranty service for existing phones will continue until 2022.
TCL had built the KEY series, including the KEY2 and KEY2 LE, along with the Motion. “For those of us at TCL Communication who were blessed enough to work on BlackBerry Mobile, we want to thank all our partners, customers and the BlackBerry fan community for their support over these past few years,” the statement said.
It is unclear whether BlackBerry will find another manufacturer. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Phones were already a sideline
For loyalists, this is the end of a run that began when the devices were so popular that people nicknamed them “CrackBerries.” Their full keyboards and security features drew praise for years.
BlackBerry itself stopped building its own smartphones in 2016 and handed production to partners such as TCL. Phone sales were falling by then, fewer first-time smartphone buyers were left, and the company had been slow to move to touchscreens. Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy line took the market.
The company turned to software instead, mainly cybersecurity and connected devices like cars. It was still struggling to turn a profit in fiscal 2020, but the shift has pulled BlackBerry back from the edge of failure of just under a decade ago, when investors worried about its survival. Its stock rose about 1 percent after the phone news on Monday.
