It was only back on January 7th that OnwardMobility, after months of silence, insisted that it was on track to launch a BlackBerry smartphone complete with 5G connectivity and the renowned physical keyboard. Sadly, it seems that it was a case of ‘the lady doth protest too much’ because barely a month later it’s being reported that OnwardMobility has canned the project after losing the license to use the BlackBerry name.
The story was originally posted by Kevin Michaluk of CrackBerry fame and also independently verified by Android Police. Sources say that BlackBerry, the company that is now in the security software business, wants to move away from its past exploits as a smartphone manufacturer, a move that is further corroborated by the company selling its remaining mobile patent portfolio to Catapult IP Innovations Inc for $600 million on January 31st.
OnwardMobility has yet to officially comment on the report and although the disappointment of BlackBerry fans is understandable, the chip shortage and the pandemic have almost certainly played a part in the dream being crushed. It’s not known at this time what the future plans of OnwardMobility are, whether it will still try to develop some type of phone that doesn’t use the BlackBerry name or if it will shutter its doors once and for all.
The yearning for a premium smartphone with a physical keyboard continues.
