BlackBerry-branded handsets will remain a key part of BlackBerry’s vision for the future of enterprise mobility, with third-party manufacturers set to produce and distribute smartphones based on the secure BlackBerry Android and BlackBerry 10 software, under licence from BlackBerry.
BlackBerry-branded devices with the company’s signature secure software will continue to be available through a variety of channels.
The first significant brand licensing agreement sees Indonesian telco, PT Tiphone Mobile, who will source, distribute and promote BlackBerry handsets in Indonesia. Agreements for other markets are set to follow in the months to come.
Says Alex Thurber, senior vice-president: devices global sales at BlackBerry: “Our announcement last week signals that software takes the lead at BlackBerry with a new strategic direction focused on development and licensing of our secure device software as well as the BlackBerry brand. We will focus on our strengths – which lie in state-of-the-art software and security solutions – while leveraging the capabilities of third-parties for handset hardware development and distribution.
“By continuing to bring BlackBerry devices to market, Enterprise customers will still benefit from our end-to-end value proposition differentiated by the BlackBerry user experience. This includes best-in-class capabilities in security, Operating System, power management and antenna technology. Our partners will bring us a competitive hardware portfolio, distribution scale and access to new channels.
“The benefits to end-users of this new strategy is that they will benefit from best-in-class hardware while BlackBerry focuses its resources on providing state-of-the-art security software for devices and the internet of things. “
