Is BlackBerry Still Making Phones

/ Electronics

Unfortunately, BlackBerry is not making smartphones in 2023.

The original BlackBerry company stopped making phones in 2016. However, BlackBerry-branded phones were permanently discontinued on 7 January 2022.

Is BlackBerry Still Making Phones
BlackBerry/Image/Unsplash

In 2012, BlackBerry was at its career peak with 80 million active BlackBerry phone users.

Read the following article to learn why this widely renowned company lost in the market competition.

Do BlackBerry phones still work in 2023?

A few BlackBerry phones are working correctly in 2023. Only the phones that came into the market with an Android OS are still functioning. But again, no BlackBerry phones will get any security updates.

On 4 January 2022, BlackBerry permanently shut down the software support of the operating systems, including BlackBerry 7.1 and earlier, BlackBerry PlayBook 2.1 and BlackBerry 10.

As these operating systems are no longer available, BlackBerry phones with these OS have become buggy and vulnerable to cyber-attacks. However, it is not the case for Android-operated BlackBerry phones.

BlackBerry phones with Android OS are still used to some degree. However, in one to two years, no BlackBerry phones will be used any longer. The BlackBerry phones powered by Android are listed below with releasing year to see at a glance:

  • BlackBerry Key2 (2018)
  • BlackBerry Evolve (2018)
  • BlackBerry Evolve X (2018)
  • BlackBerry KeyOne (2017)
  • BlackBerry Motion (2017)
  • BlackBerry Aurora (2017)
  • BlackBerry DTEK50 (2016)
  • BlackBerry DTEK60 (2016)
  • BlackBerry Priv (2015)

Related Read: What to Do with Old BlackBerry Phone

Why did BlackBerry stop making phones?

In 2016, BlackBerry stopped manufacturing its phones and sold the license of the brand’s name to BB Merah Putih. Therefore, all BlackBerry phones after 2016 are not original BlackBerry. And the primary reason for selling brand names is sales drop.

BlackBerry was at its career peak in 2011. However, it started to fall exponentially when Android and iOS-operated phones started to show up.

Companies like Samsung, Apple, HTC, etc., started to release phones with complete glass panels. The only buttons on those phones were power buttons, home buttons, and volume rockers.

On the other hand, BlackBerry was releasing phones with touch display panels and complex button sets named Qwerty keyboard. Moreover, it is not like BlackBerry lacked features.

But people were not feeling comfortable with the BlackBerry phone’s design. As a result, BlackBerry’s sales started to fall.

BlackBerry did identify the problem of using the company’s iconic keyboard. They could have removed its keyboard to meet public demand. But it was a very proud company and stuck to its plan of using the Qwerty keyboard.

If you check BlackBerry’s phones, you will see that all the latest phones of 2018 also got the Qwerty keyboard. Therefore, most of the population did not buy this company’s phone, and phone production stopped for good.

Will BlackBerry ever make phones again?

BlackBerry did not give any statement about returning BlackBerry phones on the market any time soon. Therefore, do not get your hopes up about this company.

Though BlackBerry does not manufacture phones any longer, the company still exists today. As of 2023, this company develops software on cybersecurity in Canada.

After BlackBerry sold its brand name to BB Merah Putih, the license changed hands three more times. And every time the ownership changed, the overall sales of BlackBerry phones fell more.

The owners that have manufactured BlackBerry phones are listed below with years to see at a glance:

  • BlackBerry Ltd (From 1999 to 2016)
  • BB Merah Putih (From 2016 to 2019)
  • Optiemus Infracom (From 2017 to 2018)
  • TCL Corporation (From 2016 to 2019)
  • Onward Mobility (From 2020 to 2022)

Anyways, as the BlackBerry company still exists today, there is a slight ray of hope that BlackBerry will come into the market one day.

Related Read: Is LG Still Making Phones

What are the future plans for BlackBerry?

BlackBerry did not publicly say if the company will ever recover its phone production. Therefore, the phone is not on the list of plans of this company.

However, BlackBerry is now a Canadian software company, and its target is cybersecurity. According to Seeking Alpha, this company is targeting 13 percent CAGR in whole revenue within 2027.

Currently, it is the sole plan of BlackBerry, according to this statistics website.

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