There are strong indications that Blackberry will be coming into the global handset market with a special focus for the European and North American markets. This is coming as OnwardMobility, a US company announced a deal with the iconic handset brand to develop and release a 5G handset days before a brand licensing deal with TCL Communication expired.
According to reports, the planned comeback of the 5G BlackBerry will in the first half of 2021 and the device will run Android and feature a physical keyboard with a special target at providing secure communications for public and private sector organisations, including those in the so-called gig economy.
OnwardMobility is led by Peter Franklin, whose experience is largely in the software and mobile application space including a stint at game developer Zynga working on the popular FarmVille brand.
“Enterprise professionals are eager to secure 5G devices that enable productivity, without sacrificing the user experience. BlackBerry smartphones are known for protecting communications, privacy, and data,” said Peter Franklin, who led OnwardMobility.
BlackBerry gave-up producing its own handsets in 2016 after a spectacular fall from grace which saw it go from battling for dominance of the devices market to barely shifting 500,000 handsets a quarter by the end.