HELLO ‘KEYONE’: BLACKBERRY, TCL RELEASE FIRST SMARTPHONE UNDER PARTNERSHIP

TORONTO • BlackBerry Ltd. enthusiasts hung up on the idea of physical smartphone keyboards can finally get their fingers on the last device designed at least partially in-house by the Waterloo, Ont., company.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer TCL Communication released the long-awaited BlackBerry smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Saturday. Called the BlackBerry KEYone, the Android-operated device featuring the beloved QWERTY keyboard is the first launched under TCL’s licensing agreement with BlackBerry to use its brand.

It’s the last phone that BlackBerry worked on internally before turning away from its roots as a smartphone maker last September to focus instead on software and security. Going forward, BlackBerry will license its brand and software to companies such as TCL that will design, manufacture and market devices. It has also inked deals with Indonesia’s BB Merah Putih and India’s Optiemus Infracom Ltd.

“We’re humbled to play such an important role in the future of BlackBerry smartphones, which have been so iconic in our industry," TCL CEO Nicholas Zibell said in a statement. "We’re eager to prove to the BlackBerry community that their excitement around this new BlackBerry smartphone is something they can be proud of as well."

81.7% Android smartphone market share

17.9% Apple’s smartphone market share

0.00048% smartphone BlackBerry market share

TCL manufactured the previous two BlackBerry devices, the DTEK50 and DTEK60, before it signed the final licensing agreement in December. BlackBerry pitched these as the most secure devices in the world.

“We have worked closely with TCL to build security and the BlackBerry experience into every layer of KEYone, so the BlackBerry DNA remains very much in place,” BlackBerry mobility solutions senior vicepresident Alex Thurber said in the statement.

TCL and BlackBerry started hyping the KEYone, code-named Mercury, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, sending out teaser videos of the keyboard to entice diehard fans.

The KEY one’ s launch comes as BlackBerry’s share of the global smartphone market plummeted to 0.0 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to Gartner, a technology research firm.

Approximately 207,900 BlackBerry units were sold last quarter, Gartner reported, which amounts to 0.00048 per cent of the global market now dominated by Android ( 81.7 per cent) followed by Apple’s iOS ( 17.9 per cent).

BlackBerry no longer reveals its quarterly smartphone sales since it is “not focused on cellphones,” CEO John Chen said in December.

Still, Chen had been hinting at the release of a final phone with a keyboard since summer 2016 when he admitted the Priv — the last BlackBerry device with a keyboard — sold poorly because it was too expensive.

The Priv’s original price tag was US$ 700, but the KEYone is available through preorder for US$ 549, according to TCL’s announcement.

The KEYone’s keyboard features a fingerprint sensor built into the space bar for security. It also includes BlackBerry security features and Qualcomm’s mobile platform and quick charge technology. It will be available globally in April.

COMPANY ‘NO LONGER FOCUSED ON CELLPHONES’